Serpents Heir
by TheNerdyNanny
Summary: What if Severus Snape had a son? A connection that neither of them knew about or are in the least bit prepared for? How would having that kind of connection change the course of history - for both of them...
1. Introduction

First - I deep and heartfelt apology for all of my followers waiting for updates on my other stories, but I just couldn't get this one out of my head. Hopefully, now that it's out, there will be some room left for my other ongoing projects.

As a side note - my first original work is almost ready for publication. You can expect 'Demons in the Dark' to be coming to an interwebs near you October 2015!

 **INTRODUCTION**

1993 – Sunnydale, California

It was hot. Incredibly, unbelievably, bone meltingly hot.

Severus Snape did not DO hot.

Sure, the fact that he was wearing almost all black, probably was not helping, but if was going to have to dress in muggle clothing he thought he should at the very least be able to wear what he damn well pleased.

He cursed as he strode forcefully into the partial shade of a shop veranda in an effort to escape the unbearable, blistering, mind boiling heat. Why on earth anyone would want to live in California, and SOUTHERN California at that, he would never understand. This town wasn't even anywhere close to the beach, which was the usual excuse for enduring this sort of unending year-long heat. A thermometer displayed outside of a local church had helpfully declared the temperature 89 Fahrenheit (which he mentally translated to 27 Celsius). He idly noted that this particular town seemed to have an abundant supply of churches, and even more graveyards, but brushed it aside as he fiddled with his fold out map.

While normally he would have simply apparated either directly or immediately next to his final destination, the dark swirling vortex of black, chaotic magical energy churning just below the city streets made that utterly impossible. He knew well the Spanish conquistadors legends of 'Boca del Inferno', and had studied up on the mystical properties of such naturally occurring phenomenon, but had not been wholly prepared for the black oily feeling of magic that seemed to crackle and drip and spill through the streets of this otherwise sunny and completely pedestrian little slice of suburbia.

This left him, one Severus Snape, Tenured Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and a World Renowned Potions Master, standing on a street corner in the blistering heat glaring stupidly at his impractical fold up map as he searched it's neatly lined streets for any trace of the Sunnydale High School. Why on earth a Muggle High School would possess one of the last remaining copies Adolphus Raskus's 'Effects of the Lunar Cycle on the Lycanatoxic Properties of Monkshood' was beyond him, although the swirling mass of black magic beneath his feat may have had something to contribute to it. He could only be relieved that the school itself had recently adopted an electronic inventory, which was the only reason he had discovered the book in the first place. He had little more than a week remaining to the Easter Holidays with which to track down the books exact location and attempt to acquire it.

And so it was that he, Severus Snape, was standing on a quietly busy street corner, in unbearable heat, eyes flicking over his uncooperative paper map when he heard a voice call out behind him.

"Sev? Severus Snape?"

The bewildered potions professor turned sharply to see a rather startled looking woman about his own age staring unblinkingly at him on the sidewalk behind him. The woman huffed in general annoyance and shifted the bag in her arms to put a hand on her hip as she raised a sardonic eyebrow at him. As her eyebrow slid into a familiar expression another image hit him in a flash. One of a much younger girl, not yet truly an adult, quirking an expectant eyebrow at him from across a lawn covered with discarded glass bottles and red solo cups, eyes only for him even as a party raged in full force behind her.

"Jessica Lavelle?"


	2. Chapter ONE

**CHAPTER ONE**

Hi boys and girls! Sorry for the delay in updating Serpents Heir, but I have exciting news!

Chapter One of my first original fiction #DemonsintheDark is available and ready for download on **AMAZON**! You can view it on kindle, ipad, or even your laptop. Chapter One will be **FREE** via Kindle Unlimited for the first week it's available so grab it while it's hot! And if you like what you read, stick around because all of Demons in the Dark will be coming to a digital bookshelf near you by the end of October 2015!

Keep up to date on all my projects coming down the pipeline by following me on **FACEBOOK.**

As always; Likes are Love. Shares are Hugs. And Reviews are the fuel that keeps me going!

 ** _1976 – Cork, England. Spinners End._**

 _A panting of breaths filled the otherwise quiet room. The sounds of a raging party more than two streets over could clearly be heard through the open window, as could the sounds of the at least three police cars steadily approaching the unwieldy group. Any thoughts of warning the partygoers, or at least one in particular, of their impending guests were cut short as two pairs of lips met, hot and hungry with desire._

 _She tasted like Peach Schnapps and licorice. He tasted like tea and whisky, his hair still smelling faintly of sweet smoke from their earlier activities. She could smell it on her shirt as well as he pulled it off, endearingly carefully not to snag it on her chin or nose, and threw it across the room to join his own shirt in the growing pile of discarded clothing on the bedroom floor._

 _His tongue and lips and teeth were hot and pressing against her neck as he kissed his way down to her chest. Oh god, the things he could do with that tongue…._

 **1993 – Sunnydale, California**

"My God Sev, it's damn good to see you!" Jessica huffed out throwing an arm around the tall, dark haired man's shoulders. She didn't seem to mind when he only vaguely returned the gesture, obviously still shell shocked. But he regained at least most of his wits quickly enough.

"Jessica Lavelle…" he said breathlessly, as if he were still unsure that she was actually standing in front of him. "Gods, how long has it been? Over fifteen years now isn't it?"

"Almost seventeen," Jessica corrected with a small wry smile. Severus became instantly wary when he saw that familiar expression cross her face. He had seen that expression before. It usually meant that she knew something that he didn't. Something important. Something that she knew that she could play him with later. Of all the people he'd ever known, muggle and magic alike, she was definitely the most Slytherin of them all. "And it's Harris now."

It took Severus a moment to register that name before another sardonic smirk grew on his own face to make the woman across from him. "Ah- so Tony finally proposed then? Funny, I never pictured you for the suburban type."

"Very funny Sev," Jess huffed, swatting him in the arm. "He cornered me at the terminal in New York. Whisked me away for a four day weekend in the Big City and Vancouver before I could make my escape. Proposed right there in front of Niagra Falls."

The story sounded sweet enough to anyone passing by, but Severus Snape knew Jess, whatever her last name may be now. Jess didn't do _sweet_. And he scowled disparagingly at her charming little story. Jessica's own sardonic tone and rolling eyes told him she didn't necessarily disagree with his assessment.

"Oh for the love of- and you said yes, of course?" Sev cut off scathingly.

"Well what was I supposed to do? Turn him down in front of a hundred witnesses on that damn little tour boat?" Jessica huffed, but he could tell that she was more annoyed at her own past self than she was at him. "Even I'm not that much of a bitch – _don't_."

Jess snapped when Severus opened his mouth, looking as though he were about to disagree. She held up a warning finger at the dark haired man as she set her bag of groceries down on the back fender of a tatty old estate car. Severus honestly hadn't noticed the two of them slowly making their way towards the back bumper of what he presumed to be her car. She sighed, looking tired and worn and nothing like the Jessica that he knew and remembered from their brief days (and nights) spent together in England. She set the bag in the back of the car, closing the back hood, and shrugged aimlessly.

"Besides, I was young and stupid and in love."

"Jessica Lavelle, and no I will _not_ call you Harris, regardless of whatever unmanageable lump you have matrimoniously bound yourself too. I have never ever known you to be 'stupid'. A bit foolish perhaps, and obstinately strong willed-"

"Look who's talking," she smirked. Severus raised an eyebrow, quickly silencing her.

"But not stupid. Never stupid."

Jessica shrugged lightly at the closest thing to a compliment that she knew Severus was even capable of making. It was so long ago now. What was even the point of bringing it all back up? She had made her bed, and now she had to lie in it.

"There were… other considerations."

"What-"

"Hey Ma!" Jessica didn't know whether to curse or laugh as said _'considerations'_ came rolling down the sidewalk on his skateboard. She knew that Severus had seen him as she felt the taller man stiffen where he stood beside her as she sat against the bumper of the Oldsmobile.

"Hi honey," she smiled endearingly up at the boy as he stumbled awkwardly off his board, scooping the damn thing that had resulted in so many near collisions off the sidewalk and tucking it safely under his arm. The sixteen year old ducked sideways to give her a kiss on the cheek before popping open the back window and digging around in the bag of groceries. He cried out in victory and pulled out a can of ravioli and a bag of cheezy doodles as Jessica just shook her head sadly. She really had to get that boy to start eating better. But then again, it wasn't exactly like she cooked. "Are you going to be home for dinner?"

Her son just shook his head absently as he tried to finangle a can of pasta and tomato sauce into one of the cargo pockets on his. "Late study session at the library. I think we're going to relocate to Willow's at some point for snackage. Probably just eat there."

Jessica nodded sadly. She knew her son wouldn't go hungry as long as Willow was around. The girls' parents may have been neglectful to the point of criminal abuse, but Willow was a level headed girl. Quiet, but fiercely protective of her Xander shaped friend. Especially after what had happened with Jesse last year…. And at least Willow always had a large supply of fresh and microwave ready food available. It wasn't like her boy was going to find anything better at home. And it was probably best he wasn't around after Tony got out of work anyway.

"Call if you're going to stay over," she acquiesced with a sigh.

"Sure thing," Xander agree absently. He had finally managed to get the can of ravioli securely fitted into his pants pocket and looked up with a grin. He pressed another quick peck against her cheek before tucking the bag of cheese doodles securely under on arm and dropping his board to the sidewalk as he pushed off towards the direction of the school library. "Bye mom! And don't leave the house after dark!"

 ** _1976 – Cork, England. Spinners End._**

 _She could scarcely breath, scarcely think. Dear GOD the things this boy could do with his tongue! She had to bite her bottom lip as he kissed a trail down her collar bone, over her chest, across her flat stomach, down towards her belly button. It was only when he was fiddling with the button on her jeans that she regained enough clarity to halt the proceedings._

 _"_ _What about Lilly?" she panted out, still not totally coherent as her pulse thrummed in her ears and the blood rushed to her head. She felt him still, no- not still. Freeze. She felt him freeze, his fingers still on her waistline before he growled back a reply, resuming his attempts to release her of her wretchedly tight jeans._

 _"_ _Fuck Lilly," he spat viciously. But by now Jessica had regained her bearings. She shocked him by flipping him over onto his back, straddling him like he was a wild horse as she pinned his hands loosely above his head and pressed her chest into his. She had always been much stronger than people had given her credit for._

 _"_ _Uh-uh. It's_ **my** _turn now." Jess grinned wickedly and she was certain she saw more than a little awe mixed up in Severus's dark, obsidian eyes as she met his mouth with hers. Claiming him as hers._

 **CLICK IT!** You know you want to ! Just **CLICK IT!**


	3. Chapter TWO

_Sorry for the long wait everyone - after I heard the news about losing Alan Rickman... well, lets just say it was harder than I thought trying to write his characterization of Snape down into words when I knew he wasn't here with us anymore. I almost gave up on this story in fact, if only because I knew no one else could every portray Severus Snape as perfectly or heartwarmingly as him. But I wanted to keep the story going, to get a chance to show the more human side of Snape, the character we thought we knew and hater, and then the character that we grew to know and love._

 _So Now - On with the Story!_

 **CHAPTER TWO**

 **1993 – Sunnydale, California**

Severus looked at the boy in front of him and felt his usually sharp mind immediately dull. The dark, oily, messy hair. The deep brown, almost obsidian black eyes. The sharp, angular cheek bones and square jaw. He could have sworn he was looking at the ghost of his own past self.

Sure, there were differences. The boy had short, shaggy cut hair and probably an extra twenty pounds on his teenage self (although both could have been a side effect of being an American). Severus had also never owned any shirts with quite so many bright colors. In fact, he'd only ever seen fashion like it once before – on Albus Dumbledore. The boys ears were rounder and his nose (thankfully) smaller than Severus's unfortunate beak. But really, it was such a striking similarity that Severus simply couldn't help but fall into a gasping, floundering silence as the boy pushed off his skateboard once more down the road.

"Bye mom! And don't leave the house after dark!" the boy called over his shoulder to the woman who stood on the sidewalk, now looking in uncertain concern at the still obviously shell shocked potions master.

"Severus… we should talk."

 **#liaveannos #liaveannos #liaveannos #liaveannos #liaveannos #liaveannos**

 ** _1976 – Cork, England._**

 _The music was loud and the room smoky, just how Jessica liked it. There were hits of something being passed around the room and at least a dozen pieces of sexy English arm candy looking her and her companion up and down. She smirked slyly at a few of them, placing her hand lightly on her cousins' shoulder and leaning in provocatively under the pretense of trying to be heard over the music. She knew what she was doing to those guys. And she also knew that Lilly would never go for it. But they didn't need to know that._

 _"_ _Are you sure about this Wallflower?" Jessica practically screamed over the music directly into her normally straight laced little cousins' ear in order to be heard. "This doesn't exactly seem like your type of scene."_

 _Lilly looked uncertainly around the room for a moment, worrying her bottom lip a bit, before straightening her posture and nodding firmly. Jessica just shrugged. Her 'little' cousin wasn't so little any more after all. The girl was only just recently 16 to Jessica's much more mature 17 (18 in two months, as she liked to remind her)._

 _Of the two of them, it was Lilly who had always been pegged as 'The Good One' by their respective parents. Not that Jessica wasn't a nice person or anything, but she was the one most likely to be found at a smoky bar, a cigarette or joint in her hand and a sashay to her hips as she lead on every male lifeform with a pulse. Lilly was much more likely to be found sitting beneath a big tree with an even bigger book in her lap, or volunteering at a church function or saving a baby ducking from a storm drain or something. It was why Jessica's parents had shelled out for the trip to England in the first place. They thought that spending time with her sweet, perfect little cousin would maybe do something to tone down her wild streak. Jessica smirked quietly to herself – if only her parents could see where she was now._

 _Jessica didn't know what had gotten into her innocent little cousin this summer, but if it meant she was going to get to go to more parties like_ **this** _, then she wasn't going to question it. Jessica leaned in close again, sidling her body up against her unsuspecting cousin as she winked at a particularly rugged looking guy along the far wall and asked the girl a question as pretense._

 _"_ _Hey, is your weird, creepy little friend going to be joining us? Cause I like him and all, he's got a wicked sense of humor, but he's seriously going to kill our chances of pulling a hottie."_

 _Lilly leaned back, startled, and mouthed something, but Jessica couldn't hear her over the music. The older girl rolled her eyes and signaled for the girl to lean in closer, not hesitating as she pulled the girl in to continue her conversation / shameless flirting._

 _"_ _Severus won't be coming around anymore."_

 _Jessica raised a wry eyebrow at that, noting the distinctly tight and uncomfortable expression on her cousins' face as she did before leaning in again. "Really? Cause you might want to tell him that. He's right outside."_

 _Lilly jerked back, looking shocked as Jessica calmly pointed out the front window towards the dark, hunched figure of her cousins' life-long friend as he carefully picked his way across the front yard in order to avoid as many drunk and potentially stoned high school students as possible. He didn't quite make it._

 _Less a yard from the front steps the young man was being blocked by the large, muscled figure of what Jessica would have assumed to be a football player, given the letterman's jacket and the attractive blond wrapped on the guys elbow. As this was England, it was probably either that sport that looked like football accept with no kicking, just running and lots of tackling, or the one with the tennis ball and the sticks with tiny nets at the end. Either way, the guy looked like he was getting ready to make trouble for the geeky little weird-o. She looked over to see Lilly worrying her bottom lip between her teeth but, for the first time ever and to Jessica's extreme shock and confusion, didn't seem to have any intent to intervene._

 _They could see the dark haired boy trying to slip by the much bulkier boy as he blocked the way up the stairs. The kids dark hair hung in her eyes as he kept his head bowed and his shoulders slumped, ignoring whatever taunts the athlete was throwing his way as the blond tittered appreciatively at her catch's sense of humor. Jess could see things getting ready to escalate as the dark haired boys shoulders tensed and he once again tried to slide his way past the much bigger boy blocking most of the narrow staircase, but this time the jock shoved the smaller boy firmly back, sending him flying against the ground in what must have been quite a painful landing. Lilly still stood, rigid and unmoving at her cousins' side as the altercation outside began to draw attention._

 _Finally getting fed up with her cousin, Jess rolled her eyes with a huff and stomped towards the front of the house. If Lilly wasn't going to do anything then Jess most certainly would. Quite aside from the awkward teen having been her cousins best friend for only almost their entire lives, she wasn't about to just let some jerk pound the crap out of a kid because he was smaller and, admittedly, just a little bit wierd. And that was exactly what was going to happen based on the way that the jock was strutting forward, eyeing his downed pray as the smaller kid seethed in the dirt. Jessica could see the raw hatred and barely controlled rage in the kids' dark obsidian eyes, and it made her falter for a moment, scaring her more than she cared to admit. But despite his rage the scrawny little runt didn't stand a chance and he knew it. Or at least, he wouldn't have stood a chance if Jess hadn't interfered._

 _"_ _Oooh, now that's hot," Jess stage whispered in her sultriest voice, just loud enough to be heard but just quiet enough that the assembled inebriated teenagers would honestly mistake it as a whisper. The big lug in the letterman's jacket grinned stupidly at her as Jess stood with half lidded eyes, licking her lips with a smirk and her hands on her waist. She thought she saw a flash of recognition from the boy on the ground (he had met her several times before after all) as the brute leered drunkenly at her. She smirked, enjoying the feeling of having the boy exactly where she wanted him. Now, to throw the ringer._

 _"_ _I didn't know you boys swung that way out here."_

 _The thugs brows crinkled in confusion before his face twisted into an ugly expression of disgust and outrage. "I'm no fuckin' poofter!"_

 _"_ _Really?" Jessica smirked sarcastically, casting a dubious look at the guy in front of her and the scrawny teen slowly getting to his knees behind him, which of course just made the guy madder. Now she definitely sensed her cousins presence behind her, but the girl still wasn't interceding on her friends behalf. "Anyone that can make you that hot and bothered? There's gotta be something going on on the side. I bet you just can't wait to get your hands_ all _over him."_

 _Jessica winked at both boys suggestively as the thug looked back at the confused scrawny nerd in disgust._

 _"_ _Just stay the fuck away from my parents' house freak!" The brute spat out as he strode angrily back towards his (apparently) party, grabbing his no longer tittering blond girlfriend roughly under one arm as they stalked back towards the house. The group of bystanders slowly dispersed, each of them whispering conspiratorially under their breath about the events that had just occurred and, quite possibly, about the athletes presumed sexual orientation._

 _Lilly still remained silent and passive behind her, complicit in the incident through her silence, as Jessica rolled her eyes in annoyance. So much for the golden girl protecting her friends. Jessica strode over to where the boy was shakily getting to his feet, trying desperately to brush the dirt and dust from trousers that had clearly seen better days. In fact, his whole outfit looked like it had been pulled from the church donation bin back home. Briefly recalling the state of the boys house just a few blocks over from Lilly's, Jess winced. That thought might have more truth to it than anyone present would care to admit._

 _"_ _Hey, you ok?"_

 **Dun Dun DUUUNN - Aren't I EVIL? ^-^**


	4. Chapter THREE

**1993 – Sunnydale, California**

Severus examined the woman in front of him, scrutinizing her more closely now that he had the opportunity. They sat in a dimly light corner of an otherwise bright and airy café, tucked awkwardly around the corner of a low wall and giving them some much needed privacy. The air between then was tense, thick with silence as they waited for the overly bubbly young girl who'd waited on them to serve them their coffee drinks. Jessica fidgeted vaguely with her fingers under Severus's gaze before forcefully stilling them and returning his stare with an annoyed glare of her own. Severus chuckled darkly at her huff of annoyance and Jess just rolled her eyes. The things that woman could communicate with a simple puff of air were truly astounding.

 _Hey All!_

 _Now- before anyone gets all up in arms about Sev's behavior in this chapter (as my friend/roommate/co-reader did), I would like to point out that the Severus Snape we all new and loved wasn't exactly a fluffy bunny to begin with..._

 _Oh- and BTW? All this publishing? Has got me working on new original content again ^0^ I'll be sure to keep you all posted!_

 _Likes are Love. Shares are Hugs. And Reviews keep me Updating!_

 **CHAPTER THREE**

She'd aged, since he'd known her. That much was plainly obvious. The years had not necessarily been kind to her, as evidenced by the pallor of his skin, her sunken eyes and the faint lines forming on her relatively young face. But she was still beautiful.

Her hair, once more strawberry than blond, had faded into a still vaguely reddish dusty blond. She was still thin, but was no longer the waif she'd once been as a teenager. Her fingers, long and elegant, were nicked and worn. But her eyes, they still held the same fire of that wild, wide eyed girl who'd dreamed of Brazilian rainforests and climbing the Andes. Who'd told her own cousin to fuck off for being rude to someone she barely knew. Who'd been willing to turn her back on her entire world for just the merest chance at something amazing.

And that girl had chosen a quiet suburban life, trapped in the mundane and excruciatingly pleasant world of normalcy by a husband who spent more time looking at the bottom of a beer bottle than he did the incredible woman he'd married, and a child that she had never really planned for. A child that she had remained behind to raise, none the less, giving up every dream she'd ever had for her own life. And yet… he couldn't quite help but be more than a little annoyed at her.

"He _is_ mine." Severus stated, more than asked. But Jessica nodded to confirm anyways.

"Well obviously. As if that hair or those eyes could have ever come from Tony."

It was true. Severus had once seen a picture of a teenaged Anthony Harris during their brief time together. The boy had dusty brown hair, significantly lighter than Severus's midnight black. Jessica herself had always described Tony's eyes as 'Chocolate Brown'. Nothing at all like the dark hair and eyes he'd seen reflected in the boy he met on the street.

The conversation fell silent for a moment as the bubbly girl delivered their drinks, a double espresso over ice for Severus and an iced vanilla latte for Jess. It was too hot outside for anything else. She asked if there was anything more she could get them. There wasn't.

"Does Tony suspect?" Severus asked in a deceptively calm tone. Jessica only shrugged self-consciously, which made Severus's scowl return. The Jessica he'd known had _not_ been self-conscious.

"I can't be sure. He makes jokes, comments more like, about how Alex doesn't look much like him. Usually only after a couple of drinks… but still."

"And the bruises?" Severus asked, his voice deadly. The finger shaped bruises wrapped around Jessica's slender wrist were readily noticeable, and immediately recognizable to anyone who had ever worn similar marks. When Jess looked up, the fire was still there, but Severus was left with the distinct impression that it had been caged for a very, _very_ long time.

"I told you years ago – Tony can be a bit of a hot head. The fact that he's been passed over for management at the plant _three times_ certainly hasn't helped any. He never was the sharpest tool in the shed, and lord knows the drinking doesn't help much. But-"

"The boy?" Severus asked sharply, not interested in Jessica's tirade at the moment. Jess just glared sharply at him.

"His name is Alexander, Sev. Not 'the boy'. I suggest you get used to using it, although he'll probably just ask you to call him 'Xander'."

"And how exactly do you expect that to work out?" Severus muttered sharply. "You've kept the boy –" Severus quickly amended himself at Jessica's sharp look. "You've kept _Alexander_ from me for sixteen years Jessica. And as near as I can tell the boy has no idea as to whom I am or indeed any inkling that his father might be anyone else other than that drunken waste of space you're married to. Tony may very well suspect the truth, but are you really willing to tell him-"

"Oh _fuck_ No!" Jessica commanded firmly. Severus was taken aback by her sharp rebuke. Still seething himself, the learned potions master wisely stepped down when he saw the protective fire burning in Jessica's eyes. "I may be able to keep Tony from Alex most days but that does not mean that I am willing to risk what may happen to my son – to OUR son – if Tony ever learned the truth. That is just not a risk I am willing to take!"

Jessica seemed to deflate and, though Severus was still smoldering, he felt some level of compassion for the woman in front of him.

"You have to understand Sev," Jess began tiredly. "I never expected to see you again." Severus felt a twinge at that. He had thought all his feelings for this girl had been long since dead, but hearing her say that she had written him off completely … "Oh, don't you go throwing a pity party for yourself," Jessica reprimanded him sternly. "I know that face. That old _'Woe is Me'_ face. You wear it like a favorite hat! But this isn't about you Sev. This isn't even about me. This is about Alex and two stupid teenagers who were trying to piece things together the best they could almost seventeen years ago. You were gone – who the hell knew where. Tony had proposed, offered a life, stability, a roof to sleep under. You know I almost ran out on him? Two weeks before the wedding. I thought – what the hell. I could do this on my own, right? Raise a child, see the world, do it all? And even if you never wanted to be involved as a father, which was entirely likely considering your own shit childhood" Severus tried not to flinch at that. "Even then I figured you would at least be all ' _British_ ' about it and offer to help out. If not with money, cause you were flat broke at the time, in case you've forgotten, then at least with offering up a place to stay. Even if you hated your parents' house you can't deny it would be better than a bus stop or a back alley for raising a kid. And even then I _had_ other family. People who would support me and help me get on my feet. But do you know what stopped me? Do you know what changed my mind, what made me go ahead and marry Tony? Think back Severus. Six months after our summer together."

Severus did think back, and with a painful twinge he recalled exactly what events would have spurred Jessica into her marriage with Tony. "Lilly's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Evans, were killed…. And I was implicated in their deaths."

Jessica looked at him now, so close to tears, obviously begging him to become outraged at the accusation. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. "The charges weren't entirely without grounds. I was running with a rather… unsavory group at the time. But Jessica, You must know I had absolutely nothing to do with their deaths. You _know_ how I felt about them."

"You disappeared after that," Jessica added accusingly. "I checked."

The wearied potions master just shrugged, the events of the day beginning to wear heavily on him. "I didn't run Jess. There was just… there was no reason to go back."

Jess looked at him searchingly for a long moment. Eventually, it seemed as if she found what she was looking for, and she nodded tiredly before leaning back in her seat. A heavy silence fell between the two as the events of the afternoon rolled over them. How much could one person's entire world really change in the course of a few hours? Severus felt almost certain that they had already exceeded their daily limit. Eventually, the somber quiet was broken by Jessica's dark chuckle. Severus looked at the girl-turned-woman, wondering what on earth she could possibly find funny about all of this.

"You know, if you'd have turned up four years ago, I would have left Tony in a heartbeat. Oh don't get the wrong idea – I know you and I are done, if we were ever even had anything to begin with. But for Alex's sake… things were rough back then, you know? It was the last time Tony got turned down for management and he'd just sort of, given up. He was angry. Angry at the plant, angry at his bosses, angry at the _world_ even. And he took that anger out on us. I took the brunt of it, kept Alex out of the house as much as I could. But even then I knew he had a fair few bruises he had to explain away to teachers or counselors or friends."

Severus consciously relaxed his grip on his glass coffee mug, noticing how his knuckles had turned white.

"It was nowhere near as bad as what you went through Sev," Jess said, softly reassuring him as she laid a cautious hand atop one of his tense ones. She'd seen his scars that summer. All of them. And she hadn't flinched, not even once. Just showed him a few of her own. 'Fair is Fair' she'd said. Severus coughed mildly, clearing his mind as much as his throat before he spoke again.

"What changed?" Severus asked mildly, as if he were asking about new parking restrictions, or the type of pancakes served at the local Diner rather than why another man had stopped (or at least cut back on) beating a boy he at least believed to be his own son. Jessica just smiled proudly.

"Alex hit back." Severus felt a vicious smirk climb onto his expression, despite his previously aloof demeanor. "He's more like you than I think you might want to admit Sev. And I want you to meet him."

"I believe we previously discussed why revealing his true origins to the- to Al- to _Xander_ , would be unwise."

Jessica just shook her head sadly. "You misunderstand. I'm not willing to endanger him by telling him who you really are. He's only sixteen. Two more years until he reaches the age of majority and a little more than that to graduate High School. Until then, we keep who you are under wraps. That way, when he's old enough to make his own decisions, to make his own life, I'll kick Tony's ass to the curb and tell Xander everything. From there he can make up his own mind."

"But I though you said…"

"Yes Sev, that I want you to _meet_ him. Not as his secret long-lost parent. That would be too much for any angst ridden teenager to take in. For now, I just want you to meet him, as _you_. Get to know him, get to know what type of kid he is, and what type of young man he's becoming."

"I'm not…" Severus felt as if his brain were in overload and all systems were beginning to shut down. He wasn't sure if he could do this. Sit across from his son and… what? Talk about the weather?

"I know this is a lot," Jess coached him quietly. "And I'll understand if it's too much to ask. But for now, just think about it? It doesn't have to be today, or tomorrow, or even this YEAR. But I just want Xander to get to know the man he takes after – even if he doesn't know it."

Severus only nodded blankly, although whether he was nodding to agree to meet the boy or just to think about it even he wasn't sure of. Jess seemed to understand though as she carefully wrote down a series of numbers on a slip of paper.

"I'm going to give you my home number, ok? Don't call after 5 in case Tony picks up, but I'll still be here whenever you make your decision. Do you have a place to stay while you're in town?"

Severus nodded dumbly again. "Ah, yes. The Ramada. Off the Interstate. I have a room booked until next Thursday."

He saw Jessica's hair bobbing up and down lightly as she nodded her head. His entire brain felt as if it were floating in fire whiskey as he continued to stare blankly at the spot off into the distance that only he could see. He felt Jessica press something into the palm of his hand, 'her phone number' his mind blithely provided, and a moment later he felt her lips press against his cheek. She was almost to the door when he finally managed to scrape together enough brain cells to formulate a coherent sentence again.

"Jessica?" she turned back to look at him, concern obvious in her light green eyes. "We did. We did have something. Something remarkable you know."

Jess just smiled at him. "Yeah Sev. I know."

Later, much later that evening, Severus Snape could be seen lying on his flea bitten bed in the Ramada Inn just off the Interstate. He never would make it to the school library that day. He would spend most of the afternoon just sort of wandering around town before his feet would finally take him the two miles to the hotel where he would spend his stay here in California. And later that night, as he lay atop the bed, completely and utterly unable to sleep, he would think back. He would think back and remember that fateful night when he had met the girl he would always know as Jessica Lavelle.


	5. Chapter FOUR

Before we begin I just wanted to thank Hubler99 for an absolutely amazing review and words of encouragement. You are the reason why I was so insistent on getting this chapter out! Hopefully you can enjoy the new reading material while you recover. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery and I will try to get new chapters out to you as fast as I can write them!

And, without further ado, on with the show!

Likes are Love. Shares are Hugs. And Reviews keep me Updating (obviously ^-^) !

 **CHAPTER FOUR**

 ** _1976 – Cork, England._**

 _"_ _Hey, you ok?" she asked brusquely. No doubt the guy would be embarrassed about having been saved by a girl, and she didn't want to make it any worse by treating him with kid gloves._

 _He nodded curtly, head bowed as he still tried to brush all the dust and dirt off his clothes, but it was hopeless. He was a mess and no amount of brushing was going to fix that. All it had managed to do was make his hands even dirtier. But he looked up when Lilly finally decided to descend the steps and grace them with her presence. Jessica fought her urge to roll her eyes in annoyance at the younger girl, feeling only slightly mollified by the deeply uncomfortable look on her little cousins' face. Whatever had gone down between these two, it must have been pretty serious for Lilly to leave the kid to fend for himself. But it was obvious though that the younger girl still cared for him a great deal._

 _"_ _Lilly…" a lump caught in Jessica's throat at the way the kid said her name, whispering it, almost like a prayer… God what she would give to have someone say her name like_ _ **that**_ _. But Lilly just shook her head, moisture collecting in her demure little cousins eyes as she looked sadly at her friend._

 _"_ _You shouldn't be here Severus."_

 _Severus – that was the kids name. Jessica tried to resist scrunching up her nose a little at the name. What was it with these brits and giving their kids really weird names? The way Lilly talked about her school friends, Severus was far from the most unusual name, but even that was just begging to get the shit kicked out of – ah. Yeah. Maybe a little too soon on that one._

 _Severus stood up straight for the first time since this entire altercation began, and Jessica silently vowed to refer to him as 'kid' ever again, even in her own head. The, uh, Severus that is, was easily over six feet tall. Sure he was maybe a little on the lean side, looked like he could do with a decent meal, but he had broad shoulders and a slim waist. Jess licked her lips subtly. She didn't know what the hell her cousin was waiting for but if she waited much longer someone else was going to snatch up tall dark and tasty here. Hell, cousins be damned. If Lill didn't get a move on Jess would take a bite out of him herself!_

 _"_ _Lilly please, I'm sorry! Just let me explain…" Severus began again, begging, pleading with her to be heard. "I am so, so sorry… I didn't mean it."_

 _"_ _There's nothing to explain Sev," Lilly said cooly, just a little bit of edge working its way into her voice, masking but not completely covering the hurt in there. "You shouldn't be seen hanging out with someone like me. I think you should go."_

 _Jess was tired of being stuck in the middle of an, apparently, old argument that she didn't understand and was about to interject when someone else did that for her._

 _"_ _Yeah_ **Snivellus** , _you heard the chick – Take A Hike." Jessica whipped around to see where the new voices had come from, only to find four teenaged boys descending the hill on the side of house, making their way down from the tree line. Lilly looked shocked but Severus just scowled darkly at the new comers. Jessica raised a skeptical eyebrow at the new additions as they sauntered over, clearly unimpressed. Well, two of them sauntered anyways. The tall, lanky one looked incredibly reluctant to be there, but had evidently resigned himself to being dragged along with the others. The chubby little one in the back was just looking around nervously, clearly terrified and trying to scurry along behind the others like they were a shield. The two that had sauntered, well, they were clearly the ring leaders of whatever the hell little prep boy school gang this was supposed to be. One of them, the one that had spoken, just radiated 'Bad Boy'. Jess should know. She'd spent enough time around those kinds of guys, wrapping them around her little finger for her entertainment or maybe stringing them along for an hour of fun. He had shaggy hair and a biker bar sort of look to him. But his clothes, despite the designer ripping and artificial fading, were new – all brand names too, very unlike Severus's unmarked church cast offs. So whatever was going on with Mr. Bad Boy here at home, he clearly still had access to the family credit card. The last one, of the two swagger brothers, Jess would peg as the front man. He had perfectly cut hair, just long enough to be stylishly messy without being a mop. A style that took almost constant trimming to maintain, and Jess immediately labeled him as 'Pretty Boy'. His clothes were also new, but unlike his friend he could have easily passed through a fancy British Tennis Club without so much as raising an eyebrow. Dress slacks, a button down dress shirt rolled up roguishly to the elbows, crumpling the elbows of a very expensive looking blazer._

 _This one, Mr. Pretty Boy, spared a passing sneer at the still scowling Severus, before turning to give a charming smile to Lilly, who blushed furiously but also looked deeply annoyed. "Hey Lill. You look amazing."_

 _Severus looked as though he wanted to snap this guys head off, but Lilly beat him to it. "What are you doing here James? And don't say you were just in the neighborhood – You live in Devon."_

 _Lilly's interjection had apparently stolen Mr. Pretty Boy's excuse, as he had just opened his mouth to explain when he snapped it shut again. A heartbeat later his expression twisted into a cocky smirk that Jess took an immediate disliking too. It made Lilly blush however, and it was then that Jessica decided she would never understand her cousin._

 _"_ _What, a guy can't just…_ 'Pop' _in and say hi?" Mr. Pretty Boy said with a smirk. There was something weird about the way he said 'Pop', but Jessica would have brushed it off as just an accent thing. That is, if Lilly's eyes hadn't suddenly gone so wide and Severus growled, actually growled, at the cocky boy in front of them._

 _"_ _James!"_

 _"_ _Oh, relax Lilly. It's not as if anyone saw." Pretty Boy teased dismissively._

 _"_ _They were careful Lill," a quiet voice came from the back and both Jess and Lilly turned back to look at Mr. Scrawny. Lilly smiled appreciatively, and maybe a little sadly, at the rather ragged looking young man. Jess felt, more than saw, Severus shuffling a few cautious steps away from the utterly harmless looking guy up on the hill and shot him a curious look. Severus looked pale, but then again, he'd looked pale even before any of these new kids had shown up._

 _"_ _Hey Remus," Lilly said softly. "How are you feeling?"_

 _Mr. Scrawny, apparently names Remus, just shrugged his shoulders tiredly, but that appeared to be enough of an answer for Lilly._

 _"_ _So, Lilly, care to show us around? A muggle party will be a new experience for us," Pretty Boy asked with a cocky little swagger to his steps as he came to put his arm around Lilly's shoulder. Not many would have noticed it, but then Jess had always been exceptionally observant. Lilly may have shifted uncomfortably under Pretty Boys arm, but Jess suspected that had more to do with how many eyes were watching them than the arm actually being there. What she did see, however, was Lilly's gentle swat to Pretty Boy's ribs as he sidled into what looked like a comfortably familiar position._

 _"_ _Lilly, you must be joking," Severus said, equal parts desperate and angry as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. Jess couldn't quite help but to agree with him, though she also thought Severus's thoughts on the matter might have more to do with the poorly concealed crush he'd had on her cousin ever since they were eight than anything else._

 _"_ _No one asked you –_ **Snivellus** _." Mr. Bad Boy said with a sneer._

 _"_ _Oh real creative," Jess snapped with a role of her eyes, tired of being caught in the middle of a private conversation. "You pull that insult out of a cracker jack box Einstein?"_

 _Bad Boy here must be dumber than dirt, because he just looked and stared at Jess completely blankly, but at least Severus apparently got it, as he was smirking viciously beneath a fringe of long black hair over his bent head._

 _"_ _What?" Bad Boy asked stupidly. Lilly looked exasperated, though Jess couldn't quite tell who with. Or maybe it was just with the whole situation. Right now, she really couldn't care less._

 _"_ _Guys, this is Jessica. She's my cousin from America. She's goes to 'public school' in California." Again, Jess heard the slight weight put on the words 'Public School' and was intuitive enough to know there was a hidden message in that statement. Jess scowled faintly, but Lilly either didn't notice it or chose to ignore it. "This is James, Sirius, Remus and Peter," Lilly introduced, gesturing to each boy in turn, Pretty Boy's, or James's, arm still draped over her shoulders possessively. "We go to school together."_

 _Mr. Bad Boy over here just smirked superiorly and held out his hand to shake. Deciding it would be rude to ignore the cocky sun of a bitch, and not quite willing to alienate her cousin just yet, Jess ignored her better judgement and shook it. They could have ended their introduction civilly, but then the moron had to go and open his mouth. "Oh look, she's charmed speechless. Well, I knew I was amazing but…"_

 _"_ _Oh trust me," Jess cut off his idiotic self-flattery with a sultry look that she knew made boys go weak in the knees. "The pleasure is ALL yours. So why don't you go run along and enjoy some of your own 'pleasure' somewhere else that isn't here. It's not as if you'll be getting anything better tonight… or, ever, for that matter."_

 _Severus was chuckling darkly, enjoying Bad Boy's humiliation. It took the arrogant prick a moment to figure out her insult, and Jess saw the moment of recognition when the boy immediately began to flush bright red and grit his teeth so hard she thought he might actually crack a tooth. But Jess had already turned her back on the boy in favor of cornering her cousin._

 _"_ _Lilly – can I speak with you? PRIVATELY?" Jess knew her tone brokered no room for argument and Lilly frowned, but Jessica was beyond caring right now. She took the other girl by the arm and bodily ripped her from Pretty Boy's grasp before storming up across the lawn and back towards the front steps of the house. The party had raged on without them, and the two girls went by completely unnoticed by the festivities on the other side of the large bay windows. When she finally had her cousin along, she rounded on the younger girl, fully intent on giving her hell for her stupidity. "Ok Lilly – WHAT THE HELL?! What the hell was going on back there that would make you abandon your best friend in the world like that? Leaving him to get stomped to shit in some douche bags front yard because, what? He pissed you off? What did he do? Did he make fun of your hair? Call you fat? Cheat off your homework? Please tell me he didn't_ finally _try and kiss you and you react like THIS?_ _What could he possibly have done to make you completely throw away almost a decade of friendship just like that?"_

 _"_ _You don't know what you're talking about," Lilly replied softly, sadly, and without much conviction. Mostly, she just sounded tired. But Jess wasn't about to let her off just yet._

 _"_ _No – What? I need to know Lill – what the hell could have been so bad, so terrible that you would treat him like that? What did he do – no, wait. He said something. He said 'I didn't mean it'. So he must have said something to you. Am I right? I'm right aren't I? Fuck Lilly – what the hell could he possibly have_ said _that would have justified this kind of reaction?"_

 _"_ _Why do you even care?!" Lilly snapped back, finally getting angry. Good. Angry was good. When Lilly was angry she said what was really on her mind._

 _"_ _Because despite the fact that you're acting like a complete and total tool right now, you're my cousin and I love you and I'm not willing to just stand by and watch you throw away ten years of friendship that I know mean a great deal to you just because you upset or hurt or whatever it is that's running through that thick little head of yours!"_

 _"_ _He didn't even apologize! He said something mean and hurtful and cruel and he just left me to sit and stew about it – completely cut me out of his life and he didn't even bother to apologize!"_

 _"_ _What they hell do you think_ _ **that**_ _was?" Jessica shouted back, glad they were finally getting to the bottom of this (even if it took a screaming match to do so). "Him practically on his knees, saying 'I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry' over and over again practically begging you to even LOOK at him? You think that was some kind of new_ _ **dance**_ _routine or something?"_

 _The two girls were huffing angrily at each other, each one taking a moment to put together their next come back, when a quiet cough to their left drew their attention. The scrawny one and the fat one (and no - Jess was not going to make things worse by acknowledging them as real people and calling them by their actual names) were standing on the steps just behind them. It was apparently the scrawny one who had coughed politely, as he was waiting patiently for them to look at him while the fat one just looked like he was trying very hard to hide behind the other boy (which was a feat in itself, considering how much wider he was)._

 _"_ _It's getting a bit chilly. Peter and I were going to head inside, if you cared to join us?" The scrawny boy asked politely. Jess noticed for the first time that neither of the two boys were wearing a jacket, which she considered exceptionally strange considering how cold it got in this part of England during the nights – even in summer. Lilly nodded politely and made her way up the stairs and into the house, eager to leave the confrontation with her cousin. Jess could have punched the boy if it didn't look like one solid hit would put him in the morgue – seriously, there had to be something wrong with this kid. He looked like he could keel over at any moment. Jess was sure he had just been trying to help. Brits seemed to have a thing about conflict- it wasn't really their style. But that didn't help her frustration. Lilly needed to talk. But if she wasn't going to open up, then Jess knew one other person who could tell her what was going on between the two of them._

 _She turned back to where they had left the remainder of the boys standing on the other side of the lawn. She was a little bit surprised to see that they were a further off than they had been before, now standing more or less on the curb. She was a little less surprised to see that Bad & Pretty were getting all up in Severus's face. But for some reason, the kid wasn't hitting back, even though his fists were shaking with suppressed rage, his entire body trembling with it. Jess couldn't quite see the boy's face, but if she could she was sure it would have been twisted into that same ugly expression of hatred she'd seen when he'd been starring down the bully in his own front yard. She started making her way across the darkened cup and bottle strewn lawn, quickening her pace as she saw things begin to escalate. Lilly may not be willing to stand up for her friend, but Jess would be damned if she let this sort of shit slide. _

_She was halfway across the lawn when it happened. She saw pretty boy step close, real close, to Severus, getting all up in his personal space. Then, there was a flash of light, and Severus hit the ground._ **Hard.**

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	6. Chapter FIVE

**CHAPTER FIVE**

 **1993 – Sunnydale, California. Sunnydale Community High School – Library.**

"I come bearing sustenance! In all its chemically induced cheesy puffy goodness!"

"Ohhh Xandeerrr, not Cheese Doodles ah-gaain," Willow wailed meekly, giving her bestie her most impressive Willow-pout.

"Oh no, not the Willow-pout!" Xander groaned desperately, returning her look with his own big dark brown puppy dog eyes. "You know you love the cheesy goodness!"

Willow sighed in defeat. The puppy dog eyes had defeated the Willow pout yet again. "I do. It would just be nice to eat something that _wasn't_ chemically induced every now and then."

"I'm good with the inducing," Buffy piped up as she snatched the enormous bag of Cheeze Doodles from Xander. "Without the inducing and all the chemical yumminess, all my favorite foods would just be… cardboard."

Buffy immediately perched herself cross legged on the edge of the table where Willow was conducting most of their research as she popped open the bag and began munching.

"Don't forget the industrial waste," Xander mock chided. It was an old argument. They had become convinced that the Sunnydale High cafeteria was recycling industrial waste and passing if off as 'food'. The suspicious looking gray goo the school was regularly supplied with certainly gave some credibility to the theory, as did the fact that the cafeteria stocked food coloring and 'flavor enhancers' by the barrel full.

"Yes, well… quite," Giles interrupted politely with a quiet cough and a rather disturbed expression. Xander would be disturbed too if he were G-Man, the guy had eaten the 'sloppy joe surprise' in the cafeteria two days ago and promptly gone a rampage (or at least a close to a rampage as the strictly British librarian ever gone, which was mostly just a stern lecture). The new theory was that the cafeteria was clearly run by demons intent on taking over Sunnydale and opening the gateway to hell by controlling an army of teenagers through the diabolical lunch program. "May we resume?"

Willow nodded with exaggerated seriousness as Buffy just munched absently on the powdery puffy cheesy chemical goodness, but she did at least slide off the top of the table into one of the seats. Xander gave Giles a mock little salute before sliding into one of the seats next to Buffy and immediately trying to steal some of the Cheese Doodles, which was incredibly difficult given her slayer reflexes. But Buffy did eventually let him sneak a few from the bag as they pretended to pay serious attention to whatever Giles was saying. Giles just sighed tiredly and set down the big duty old time in his hand open to the page he'd been looking at on their work table. Willow eagerly scooped up the text as Giles just polished his glasses.

"As I was saying, we've seen an increasing surge in vampire populations over recent years. Something which must be dealt with before their numbers become too great to control. The last time we saw a surge of this nature was in the mid-eighties, though most of those newly created were eventually wiped out in a sort of magical conflagration in England."

"So what's the big?" Buffy asked idly, kicking her legs in an attempt to run off some of the excess energy she always seemed to carry as she and Xander fought good naturedly over Cheese Doodles. "I go, I poke, they go dusty."

"It's not quite that simple," Giles responded, tiredly exasperated as he tried to find the right words with which to explain the seriousness of this situation without sounding like, and he was quoting here, 'all doom and gloom guy'. "While yes, increasing your patrols will help to temporarily relieve the problem, a larger surge amongst vampires in the preference for turning their victims rather than just feeding on them could spell problems for us down the road. Most particularly when these vampires suddenly decide to stop acting as individuals or even small group units and realize that they have greater power in-mass."

Buffy was furrowing her brow, which meant that she was at least thinking about the problem, but didn't necessarily mean that she got it. "Imagine, if you will, that you go out slaying one night, just as you would any other night. Only, instead of only one or possibly four or five vampires, there are twenty, or thirty, or even fifty of them. Even the freshly turned can be problematic if they exist in great enough numbers."

"Anyone else thinking about investing in a portable sun?" Xander asked nervously, his Cheese Doodles lying forgotten in front of him. Giles sighed quietly in exasperation, mostly at himself. He had not truly meant to alarm the young people under his charge (said alarm was evidenced quite clearly by the fact that Xander was no longer eating), only to instill in them the seriousness of the situation.

"Given what little we know about the upcoming threats against us- that may not be an unreasonable request. If the Harvest has shown us anything it is that there is little safety to be found in Sunnydale these days, even for more normally inclined passers-by. As such, it would not be unwarranted to consider increasing both our training regimens and our available arsenal." Giles pointed out as he polished his already spotless glasses furiously. When he perched them back, very Britsh-ly, on his nose, his gaze was directed solely at the two young people who had taken it upon themselves to aid his Slayer in this never ending fight, possibly not realizing what was at stake and what exactly they had signed up for when they had first gotten involved. He sighed tiredly and was sorely tempted to re-polish his already very clean glasses in an effort to avoid this conversation, but scolded himself for the impulse and instead turned to face his two completely absolutely _painfully_ ordinary young charges. "I find that I must reiterate, yet _again_ , that neither of you, Xander nor Willow, are obligated to take any part in the upcoming battles."

Buffy had gone very quiet and begun fiddling with the cheesed snack item lying on the table in front of her, spinning one in place and occasionally flicking bits of cheese dust crumbs across the table. What the man wouldn't have given to know what was going through the cheerleaders' blonde head at that moment…

Willow just furrowed her brow in confusion for a moment, not quite understanding Giles's point as Xanders face seemed to get stuck halfway between a frown and a grimace.

"We're not just going to leave her…" Willow started uncertainly, not sure if she'd interpreted Giles meaning correctly or not. When it became clear to her that she had, she puffed up with all the bright pink indignation that someone of her size could muster. "Giles- how could you even think that! I mean I know this is all really dangerous and we're not really trained or skilled or have superpowers or superhuman reflexes or strength or healing like Buffy does, but we're not completely helpless! I mean – I've gotten pretty good at translating dead languages and stuff and okay so that's not really much good in a fight or anything but I can still be really useful in doing all the research kind of stuff and helping to figure out which big bad I trying to take over the town and how to make it all dead and stuff! And Xander's gotten really good at making all the pointy sticks and stuff and coming up with new ideas from what he's seen in cartoons and and and… snacks?"

Willow trailed off weakly, her otherwise incredibly impressive babbly coming to a less than substantial finish. But Xander didn't need reasons to know why he was here. He didn't need Willow's support or other peoples reasoning for why he was fighting. He had his own.

"Jesse."

Willow gave him a sad, watery smile, her hand finding its way to his wrist across the library table. Jesse had been their third musketeer. For most of their young lives it had just been Xander, Willow, and Jesse, being normal kids, goofing around, and having each other's backs. And then the darkness had swallowed Jesse whole. Xanders first, and so far only, vampire. And while yes, he may have threatened Jesse with the stake, Xander himself had been fairly certain that he never would have been able to go through with it – until someone else had shoved Jesse forward, impaling his best friend on the wooden stake in his hand. It wasn't a glorious victory. Not an epic tale he could one day tell his grandchildren. It was twisted and painful and confusing. But it had cemented Xanders role in whatever battles came their way. He'd lost one of his best friends that day, and he was damned if he was going to let anyone else go through that without at least _trying_ to stop it.

"Very well then," Giles relented with a tired sigh. He couldn't say that he did not admire their spirit, but Giles very much doubted that this would end well, for either of the two young people involved. The fact that it would not end well for the Slayer was a given, and as such he had tried not to get too attached. But it was… difficult. Removing and polishing his spotless glasses once again before replacing them back on his nose. "I suppose we had better get started then."

 **#liaveannos #liaveannos #liaveannos #liaveannos #liaveannos #liaveannos**

 **1993 – Sunnydale, California. The Harris Residence.**

"Damn Assholes wouldn't know a good idea if it knocked them in the head and ran off with their misses!" Tony grumbled angrily as he stormed around the kitchen, wrenching the fridge door open with such force that Jessica thought he might actually break it. She looked carefully at the man that stood only a few feet away from her. He'd changed, since they were in school, but not for the better. The stubborn pride, quick temper and cocky self-assurance of a 19 year old high school Letterman had gradually transformed into a bitter, rage full, loathing middle aged man disappointed in the world and in the results of his own life. She wondered if things would have been different if she'd run off as a teen, but quickly banished that idea from her mind. It was her life now, no sense in going back and regretting what might have been. All she could do now was move forward.

Tony finally leaned out of the fridge, a few slices of ham shoved into his mouth as he took a long swig of beer to wash it down. The corner of another can could be seen peeking out over the edge of his pocket. Jess had always noticed the little things. It was one of the things that had helped keep her alive these past few years. The fact that her husband had immediately headed to the fridge and pulled out a beer the moment he got home was about as subtle a sign of danger as an approaching wolf pack with rabies.

After her distressingly brief conversation with Severus that morning, Jess was not really in the mood to deal with one of Tony's tirades. She tried not to be angry with him. She knew that he hadn't asked for this. She knew his history. She knew how difficult it would be. But she also couldn't help the little bubble of disappointment that welled up inside of her as she remembered their conversation earlier that afternoon.

Jess remained silent as her husband stormed around the kitchen, raging about work. She was careful to appear attentive without making any actual affirmations, knowing that even the hint of a comment from her part would potentially set him off. She had been chopping carrots, attempting to make something that at least _resembled_ chicken pot pie, when he'd come home, but had quickly wiped the knife clean and hidden it away in the drawer when she'd sensed his mood. Tony may not have ever used a weapon against her before (he didn't need to, his fists could do plenty of damage on their own) but she was not willing to test the limits of that theory by potentially involving a very sharp blade in one of their 'disagreements'.

"Why am I even talking to you? What do you know about any of this? Ha?" Jess's shoulders tensed as his attention turned to her. Her eyes slid slowly shut as she prepared herself for the inevitable, letting his angry words and rants wash over her even as they tried to settle themselves deeply beneath her skin. "Nothing – that's what! Just sit around the damn house all day doin' nothin'! Can't even make a half decent dinner! God's I don't even know why I put up with you anymore. Used to be a hot piece of ass – now look at ya! Just some dried up old bitch can't even make dinner. Whad'ya have to say to that, huh?! Wha' d'ya say?!"

She felt his fingers wrap tightly around her already tender wrist, yanking her around to face him, knowing that they would leave a deep purple mark to add to her splotchy collection. His breath was hot and reeked of alcohol. Obviously the beer he'd had when he'd gotten home had not been his first one of the day. She wondered vaguely how long it would be before the plant cut his drunk ass loose.

Something of her thoughts must have shown on her face, because a moment later she felt the back of his hand connect firmly with the side of her face. She knew it was stupid, but for one moment, for one precious fleeting life altering moment, she wished that Severus were here.


	7. Chapter Six

**CHAPTER SIX**

 ** _1976 – Cork, England._**

 _Then, there was a flash of light, and Severus hit the ground._ Hard.

 _"_ _Hey!" Jess shouted across the empty front lawn, her voice trembling with rage and indignation as she dropped all pretense and sprinted the remaining distance to where the two boys were standing over the prone form of her cousins' friend. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"_

 _Jess fiercely shoved Mr. Bad Boy out of the way as she bent down and gave the fallen boy a quick look over. Neither of the two protested, Mr. Bad Boy just chuckling at her protective nature. The scrawny kid sprawled on the pavement was definitely unconscious, and from the scrapes on his hands and face it looked as though he hadn't landed gracefully. She reached desperately for his neck, fumbling around for a few moments before giving up – she'd never been able to find a pulse in health class, why would she be able to now? So instead she put the back of her hand up against the boys' nose and mouth, relieved to feel the faint puff of warm breath against her cool skin._

 _Relieved to find that the boy was least still alive, she turned her glare back to the two ass-hats standing behind her._

 _"_ _What the hell is your problem?! What, you think two against one is funny?! Oh yeah – what big tough guys you are. Can't even take down a scrawny little guy half your size without pulling a Taser. Oh yeah, real brave of you."_

 _She saw Bad Boy turn to Pretty Boy with a look of confusion on his face and mouth something at him, but Pretty Boy just shrugged and turned back with an indifferent expression towards the enraged American._

 _"_ _Don't really see how that's any of your business," Pretty Boy replied almost lazily, as if he hadn't just assaulted another kid who was currently lying unconscious in the street._

 _"_ _Maybe it's not – but it's sure as hell Lill's," Jess shot back viciously. Finally, she got some kind of reaction. Pretty Boy's cocky air faltered and he glanced uncertainly at Bad Boy, whose eyes had just hardened. Jess knew she'd found the nerve – now she just had to press it. "Wonder what my dear, innocent, idealistic little cousin would think about you two jack asses ganging up on her childhood friend and attacking him? She might not think you're so pretty after I tell her_ that _ugly little fact."_

 _"_ _You wouldn't dare," Bad Boy growled in what he hoped was an intimidating way, but it just made Jess laugh._

 _"_ _Oh TRY ME, ass hat – I dare ya'."_

 _"_ _Sirius." Pretty Boy cut in just as it looked like his idiot friend was getting ready to do something truly stupid. The guy actually had a stick in his hand and Jess vaguely wondered what he thought he was going to do with it – poke her to death? Bad Boy turned to glare at his friend, but at the other teens firm shake of the head, he put his stick away (Jess actually thought he slid it into his back pocket, which was just weird) and instead settled for just scowling at her. The two boys grimaced at her and for one brief, fleeting moment, Jessica worried that she had pushed too far. But after a long period of silent, intense starring, the two boys slowly backed away, waiting until they were a fair distance from the girl before turning their backs on her. Once she was safely out of their line of sight, Jessica heaved a shaky sigh of relief and wondered, once again, just what it was that her cousin saw in that douche bag._

 _A groan on the ground caught her attention and Jess hurried to kneel down on the pavement next to the slowly waking boy and placed gentle hand on his shoulder to lightly shake him._

 _"_ _Hey, Sev. Severus. Come on. Wakey-wakey. Come on now snake boy, I don't have all night here," Jessica complained mockingly, trying to disguise her worry as they boy remained still. Eventually she saw his face screw up with pain as he groaned again, his eyelids fluttering as he struggled back towards consciousness. "There we go. Come on tough guy, open those big black peepers for Aunty Jess."_

 _"_ _Mmmhhh… you are most definitely not my aunt."_

 _Jess snickered darkly at the younger teen as he mumbled snippy comments under his breath. "How would you know? Maybe I'm having an affair with your long lost uncle."_

 _"_ _No- you are not nearly intoxicated enough to be a relative of mine," Severus grumbled bitterly before an adorable flush crept over his pale hollow cheeks (the guy really needed a double cheeseburger, like- now). He tensed suddenly, pushing himself upright as he carefully kept his face averted, embarrassed at having said too much. Jess just smirked darkly._

 _"_ _Please, I could drink you under the table_ twiggy."

 _Severus glanced up at her carefully, eyes swimming in uncertainty before his features smoothed into something more… playful. "Is that so…" Jess just smirked and nodded confidently. She was now seated cross legged on the pavement in front of him, having grown tired of propping herself up, as he pulled himself into a sitting position as well. Severus chuckled darkly and returned her smirk with a fiercely determined one of his own. Sev stuck out his hand and gave Jess a wry look, one eyebrow arching up towards his hairline as her smirk deepened and she accepted his silent wager. "Well then – challenge accepted."_

 **#liaveannos #liaveannos #liaveannos #liaveannos #liaveannos #liaveannos**

 **1993 – Sunnydale, California. Sunnydale High School.**

"I greatly appreciate you taking the time to see me on such short notice Principal Flutie."

"Oh, of course! Of course! Not at all my good man! It isn't very often we get visitors from such prestigious organizations such as yours after all!" It was the end of the school day and all but a few of the students and several teachers had returned home for the evening. The principal gestured eagerly towards an empty chair seated in front of his desk, still waving and smiling jovially at the rather serious and stern looking dark haired gentleman in front of him. And a gentleman he most definitely was – if the well-tailored dark suit and professionally engraved business card were not enough of a giveaway then the smooth, sophisticated British accent most certainly did. Sure he'd heard British accents before, but this man's slow, smooth drawl was nothing like the school librarians' flustered ramblings and arguments. "Now, what was it that I could help you with? A book, you said?"

"Indeed," Severus had to fight hard to keep the sneer out of his voice and instead answered the bumbling little man calmly and levelly. This over excited little ball of exuberance and misplaced cheerfulness was actually in charge of seeing to children's educations? He doubted very much if this man was capable of finding his way out of a paper bag, let alone molding any young minds into anything closely resembling intelligence. At least Albus's irritating exuberance and perpetual twinkling was paired with a sharp wit and admittedly brilliant mind. This rather rotund little buffoon, however, had no such excuses to hide behind. And so it was that Severus would have to pull on every last ounce of skill he possessed as a long time double agent and spy in order to keep his neutral expression and restrain himself from reaching over the cheap, chipped, fake wood desk and strangling the tiny moron. Instead, he settled himself in for what would most likely be the most mind numbing and redundant conversation of his life.

"The text itself is quite useless – the ramblings of a syphilitic mad man towards the end of his life. Complete and utter nonsense, the whole thing. However, it is the rarity of the text which makes it valuable to the Consortium."

"Right, right," the principal muttered along, his head bobbing to his words as he at least pretended to understand the lies and excuses Severus was spinning before him.

"Surely an educated man such as yourself must appreciate the rarity of any text published before the advent of the printing press in the latter half of the fifteenth century, as all such manuscripts had to be drafted by hand. A painstaking and somewhat laborious process which severely limited production capabilities."

"Ah, yes yes. Of course," Principal Flutie nodded along understandingly. Severus pushed back yet another derisive scowl. He had the stubby man eating out of his hands, he would not blow it now by openly displaying his contempt for the imbecil.

"As the text in your library appears to be an original 1309 edition from your records, though of course I would have to examine the text myself to verify its authenticity, the Consortium would be more than willing to compensate you quite handsomely in return for such a rare find."

"Well well well, I must say I like the sound of your proposition very much Mr. Prince. Although I must say, I am more than a bit confused as to how such a valuable old text could have ended up in our school library. It doesn't seem at all to be the sort of thing that would follow our curriculum – what did you say the title was again?"

Severus cursed silently to himself, though he remained perfectly unmoved on the surface. He was beginning to question the man's affable personality. Perhaps this Principal Flutie was actually more intelligent than he seemed.

"Adolphus Raskus's 'Effects of the Lunar Cycle on the Lycanatoxic Properties of Monkshood'," Severus reminded him calmly, though his aloof air was beginning to fail him as he grew more frustrated. "It's an odd thing, but not uncommon. Books such as these have a way of finding themselves passed from generation to generation, the families haven forgotten all mention of them over the centuries. Sometimes old lines die out, leaving the books to estate sales. Sometimes they are found in old houses or chapels, forgotten. Inevitably they seem to end up in book donation bins. I cannot tell you the number of pre-Elizabethan texts I found at a small Sunday school in Missouri last year. They were using them to prop up a wobbling table."

Severus tried to put on a deeply affected scholastic air, seemingly disappointed with how such 'treasures' could be so callously disregarded. The principal frowned, nodded along sympathetically. But Severus no longer trusted this man's absent minded head bobbing and instead looked closely at the man's eyes. It took very little effort on his part to lightly skim the muggles surface thoughts. After all, he wasn't one of the greatest Legillimens in Britain for nothing. The man was a simpleton, but not completely stupid. The Principal wanted to run his backstory, all of which would check out, and would likely call the provided reference number to speak to someone at the Consortium, which was also fine. Severus had an old friend in London standing by ready to answer the phone, in exchange for a few slightly less… _legitimate_ potions which Severus had agreed to produce for him on the side. The Principal was also considering inquiring with an antiques expert as to the value of such an incredibly rare item. That might actually cause him some concern. Though the age of the text would undoubtedly spark interest, Raskus' was a complete unknown in the muggle world, having only ever published scholarly works on ancient magic (particularly runes, herbology, and lunar symmetry). He would have to try and circumvent such measures.

"Of course, if the text is a replica, then this entire discussion is irrelevant. Once I confirm the books age and originality I would be able to give you a valid offer, which of course you would be able to take to other potential buyers if you so wished."

"And how would you confirm the books age?" Principal Flutie asked curiously.

"A simple chemical test should be able to confirm initial findings," Severus answered with casual indifference.

"Won't that damage the book?" Flutie asked, looking alarmed. Ten minutes ago he had no idea he was in possession of such a text, now all of a sudden he was devastated at the thought of losing it.

"Not at all," Severus assured him calmly. "I would take three swabs from the pages, ink, and cover material and confirm the results from that. I could run the tests right now, if that would be agreeable for you."

Flutie nodded along seriously before apparently coming to a conclusion. "Yes, yes. That should be fine. Our librarian is out for the day – something about a death in the family. Most of our staff have already gone home, although there may still be a few students remaining in the library. Mr. Giles has quite the after-school study club going."

The pair of them had stood and were steadily making their way down one of the many identical hallways of the maze like school as Principal Flutie rambled on and on about the various extra curricular's offered here at Sunnydale High and how nice it was to see young people taking an interest in their education. Severus slowly zoned out the man's endless droning, being careful to continue to nod in the right places and made vaguely affirmative noises. Honestly, and Severus rarely ever had cause to say this, but he much preferred the chaotic maddening halls of Hogwarts to this endless dreary prison. At least there the constantly moving staircases and rearranging hallways kept one on their toes. In this place Severus could easily imagine one dying of sheer boredom. Given the fact that one such student was sprawled out haphazardly across a library table, repeatedly throwing and catching a small rubber ball as it bounced off the wall. There was a girl sitting off to the side in one corner, her nose buried in a particularly large book as she looked up curiously at the two intruders.

Severus steps actually faltered, shock making its way into his eyes for only a fraction of a second before he carefully schooled his features back into their impassive mask. The girl in front of him looked so very much like Lilly, like ' _his_ ' Lilly, the one he'd known best, at the age of fifteen that he felt his breath falter and shudder in his chest, his heart leaping up into his throat and making it impossible for him to form words as he stared at the young woman before him.

Of course, she wasn't actually his Lilly. The red of this girls hair was just a shade or two brighter than the girl he'd known, and her eyes a calmer jade green than Lilly's bright emerald. Lilly had been an inch or two taller, he felt certain, though it was difficult to know for sure as she girl was still sitting behind one of the library tables, and enormous book propped open in front of her. He scanned the title, raising an eyebrow as he wondered why on earth a 16 year old muggle would be reading about ancient 'transubstantiation' rituals, particularly as the book was in Ancient Summarian.

The girl flushed, closing her book and settling it casually at the bottom of a pile of folders and school work as her friend finally stopped bouncing his rubber ball against the library wall and glanced curiously towards the newcomers. Severus heart dropped from where it had been lodged up in his throat down to his toes as a pair of identical coal black eyes blinked back at him from across the library. He felt himself pale and his senses dull as the past lurched up to grasp at him with unrelenting viciousness.

The scene before him could have s very easily taken place almost twenty years ago, in another library, so very far away from here. Apart from an odd detail or two (both of their wardrobes, the boys' hair length and the straightness of his nose) this could have so easily been him and Lilly, sitting at a Hogwarts library table in the quiet calm of early evening before supper. Him with a potions book or three spread out in front of him, scribbling in the margins and scrawling elaborate diagrams and preparations for theoretical potion making. Her with her charms homework, meter after meter of neatly looping handwriting on yellowed parchment, maybe a new book on social reformations between wizards and magical creatures if she was in a mood.

"Ah, Mr. Harris, Ms. Rosenburg. So nice to see two such studious young people. I was just telling Mr. Prince here that Sunnydale actually has quite the active student body," Principal Flutie nattered on, practically beaming. Severus snapped back into reality with brilliant clarity so bright he had to bite back a wince.

"Oh yeah, _very_ active. Especially after sun down," the boy, Xander chimed back with a wry sincerity that the Principal obviously had difficulty deciphering. Severus on the other hand furrowed his brow slightly, wondering just what the young man could have meant. When the young lady sitting next to him subtly smacked him in the leg as she beamed politely at the two adults, his consternation grew to worry, though he was careful not to let his features betray him. It wasn't possible that the boy knew of the oddities of his home town, was it? The boy, Xander, glanced over to him, and Severus had the incredibly unnerving sensation that he was being evaluated.

"Perhaps these discussions would best be carried out in Private?" Severus suggested with all the subtlety of a neon sign.

"Ah yes – of course," Principal Flutie agreed sheepishly, the pudgy little man flushing slightly as he turned back towards the two young people seated at the desks. "If you two would please excuse us, I'm afraid we'll be commandeering the library for a bit."

"What for?" The b – _Xander_ , asked impertinently. If it had been one of his students Severus would have been quick to reprimand the boy for his tone. But at present he was not 'Professor Severus Snape – Feared Potions Master of the Dungeons', he was merely 'Mr. Severus Prince – Rare Book Collector'. And so he held his tongue.

"Well Mr. Harris," Professor Flutie chuckled, and Severus didn't know which was making him grimace more – the Principals joking tone, or the fact that he referred to the, to Xander, with Harris's surname. "That would be for me to know and you to create rumors about. Go on now, feed the gossip mill. I'm sure you have other places you can spend your Thursday afternoons."

Severus winced as he smoothed out a particularly vicious glare – the last thing he needed was these two chatting up the entire student population with speculations. But as the principal seemed so utterly unconcerned with the prospect, Severus didn't very well feel as if he could object.

The two teenagers glanced at each other uncertainly, the boy turning back to give both men what Severus felt to be an unduly suspicious look as the girl tried to hide her misgivings beneath a wide but wavering smile.

"Sure thing Principal Flutie. You, uh, have a nice day," the girl bid shyly, dragging the still curiously glaring your man behind her by the wrist as the two teenagers exited the library. At last, Severus returned his attention to Principal Flutie who was grinning cheerfully and rubbing his hands together in obvious eagerness and excitement.

"Now, where were we?"


	8. Chapter SEVEN

Hi guys! I would like to go ahead and apologize for the delay :( My father had a motorcycle related incident which led to multiple emergency room visits and one hurriedly purchased transatlantic flight. Anyways, things have been a bit chaotic for a while, but I'm back! Now, enough with the excuses and on with the show! For those who are interested, I have links below; Twitter Facebook

As always; _Likes are Love, Shares are Hugs, and Reviews keep me updatings!_

 **CHAPTER SEVEN**

 **1993 – Sunnydale, California.**

"I'm telling you Willow," Xander insisted. His voice was getting dangerously close to a whine, but he was far too preoccupied to care as he kept glancing over his shoulder back towards the 'not-so-hallowed-halls' of Sunny-hell High. "Somethings not right about that guy. I don't know what, and I don't know how, but my Sunny- senses are tingling."

"The same famously reliable senses that almost got you eaten by a giant praying mantis masquerading as our substitute science teacher last month?" Willow asked in an oh-so-casual tone of voice. Xander shuddered violently as he felt a chill crawl down his spine at that thought.

"I thought we agreed to never ever EVER bring that up? Unless of course you want to discuss 'Malcolm'." Xander teased, knowing the demon turned computer virus with a crush was still a sore spot for Willow. Sure enough she turned bright red and 'eep'-ed involuntarily, taking a swat at his shoulder as he chuckled in amusement. "But seriously though, I don't know what it is. It's just… something feels sort of – off, somehow, with that guy. I mean, we've been around Buffy enough at this point, even if they still don't let us go on the really big important mission," Willow gave her friend a sympathetic little smile, which Xander dutifully pretended not to notice as they both skirted around the fact that Giles and Buffy had, once again, left them out of the loop as they went on an important mission of some kind or another. "Buffy's always talking about how she can just, you know, _sense_ things with the big bads or the coming darkness or whatever kind of hell is breaking loose this week. Maybe some of that is wearing off on me or something."

"Slayer-adjacent sense?" Willow suggested helpfully, if not quite convincingly.

"I don't know," Xander grumbled, kicking listlessly at the ground as they rounded the corner away from the school. "Just… something."

Xander fell quiet for a long moment as Willow took the opportunity to quietly observe her friend. It was true that, in many ways, he was the same loveable, affable, funny, genuine, Xander-shaped friend she'd known her entire life. He joked quickly and laughed readily, chumming it up and just generally playing a really good guy. He wore his brightly colored Hawaiian shirts and slacked off at school and continuously crashed into perfectly stationary objects with little to no help from basic self-preservation. He ate spaghetti-o's and teased Willow and made silly faces to cheer her up, regardless of who was looking.

But in other ways, ways that weren't necessarily so obvious, but were maybe even more important, he'd changed. His laugh was shorter, almost like he tired of it quickly. His smile, while still genuine, didn't quite reach his eyes. His lack of attention in class, while previously comical, was much more abrupt and dismissive. What worried Willow most of all – was how expendable he seemed to view himself. Like, if he got crushed under the great big wheel of destiny while helping to save world then that was perfectly ok, just so long as no one else got hurt.

"I don't know Xan, you might be on to something. Maybe we should have Buffy check him out when she gets back?" Willow suggested meekly and was immediately rewarded with a radiant smile. Xanders grin was infectious, and soon Willow found herself smiling shyly back. "I mean, if he's going to be hanging around the library at all, it's always better to be safe than sorry, right?"

"Right!" Xander agreed whole heartedly, enthusiastic once more now that he had his friends support. As they got to a street corner Xander began to veer off to the left.

"Hey Xan, where are you going? Aren't we going to do study night tonight?"

"Ugh, _Will-llow_ , my brains all jellified from research duty," Xander moaned half-heartedly. "I honestly can't fit another thing in it without my head going all s'plodey. I think I was just going to call it a night."

Willow put on her best pouty face, determined to convince Xander to study, but he just shielded his face with his backpack and crouched in an overly dramatic defensive posture.

"Nope! Not happening! It's not going to work this time Willow!" Xander cried out in his defense. He was convinced Willow was still pouting determinedly at him until he felt a light swat on his arm. "Ow! What was that for?"

Xander cried out indignantly as he dropped his backpack to rub at his imagined injury. Willow wasn't paying attention though. Instead she was closely watching a figure on the other side of the street, and when Xander followed her gaze he understood why.

There, in the shadow of a shop overhang, was the pale form of the Professor they'd only just met a half hour ago in the school library. Pale, drawn up tall and dressed all in black, he cut an imposing if somewhat out of place figure on the sunny Californian street corner. People seemed to be moving around him, giving the man a wider berth than what would have been considered normal, even if it meant leaving the sidewalk altogether and walking along the street. He didn't do anything, didn't say anything. Just stood there, dark eyes focused on them with a single minded intensity that unsettled both teenagers.

Then, without a word, he turned and left, disappearing down a busy alleyway between two buildings as if he had never even been there in the first place.

Willow and Xander stood there for a moment, trying to shake the seriously unnerving feeling that had slithered down their spines under the man's scrutiny.

"Well," Xander cut in suddenly, trying to break free from their frozen moment. "That wasn't ominous or creepy at all."

"Nope," Willow agreed, her voice almost a full octave higher than it was normally. "Not in the ittiest."

"Right," Xander agreed numbly still trying to shake the bizarre feeling of being watched. "Uhm, you know what Wills? Maybe I should walk you home after all."

"Yeah," Willow agreed whole heartedly, her voice coming out in an awkward little squeak. "Yeah, that would be great. Thanks."

Xander just nodded along and looped his arm over Willow's shoulders protectively. If Willow blushed furiously at the gesture then Xander didn't notice as he was still glancing back every once in a while to check and see if they were being followed.

*** *** ***

 **1993 – Sunnydale, California… the other side of town**

The Sunnydale zoo was not necessarily known for attracting tourists. Truth be told, it was not particularly well known for attracting much of anyone. But, as any up and coming villain knows, a half empty zoo makes an excellent place for a secret lair. Especially when said evil plot has some… specific requirements.

A trio of howls rose up into the late afternoon sunshine as one of four wooden crates clattered noisily onto the concrete floor in the 'African Predators' cavern.

"Hey- watch it!" a sort of weathered looking blond haired man with a clipboard called out across the exhibit, glaring disapprovingly at the work hands offloading the heavy wooden crates. "Those are incredibly rare creatures you know!"

One of the workers began rambling at him in what sounded like Spanish, grumbling and growling and pointing animatedly at the crates. But the man with the clip board just swept aside his concerns.

"-peligroso! Es un muerte malo!"

"Yes, yes, yes," the man with the clipboard dismissed casually as he pointed to the dotted line where he needed the workmen's signature as the other workers continue to unload the remaining three crates. "You were warned of the risks when you were informed of the cargo. There's no use moaning about it now."

The head workman continued yelling at him in Spanish, but he was signing the clip board, and that was really all that mattered to the middle aged blond man. He nodded along with the workers complaints, grimacing as the remaining workers continued to unload the remaining crates and not being too gentle about it either. But eventually all the t's were crossed and the i's were dotted and the workers could be on their way. The man with the clipboard showed them out of the African Predators exhibit, shutting the door behind them as he continued to nod along sympathetically with the other man's ranting. He could still hear the workmen grumbling along unhappily as they got into their truck and rumbled off into the distance.

In the cool darkness of the artificial cavern, with only the low level emergency exit lighting pulsing in the eerie gloom, a terrifying grin slowly spread across the middle aged zoologists expressions. The blond, slender man began to laugh in the encompassing gloom. First quietly, as if to himself. But slowly, oh so slowly, his laughter was echoed by the growing eerie cackle of the creatures in the crates around him...

 _Dun dun duuuunnn!_

 _Again - apologies for the delay, but more to come soon!_

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 _Remember, Likes are Love, Shares are Hugs, and Reviews prompt me to update!_


	9. Chapter Eight

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

 **I would apologize for the delay, but honestly that's just getting redundant. Also, this chapter is just a little bit of a bummer, but I hope the feelz make up for it. Also, I'm trying to keep Severus in character while still introducing new dimensions to him with the additional history and story line. So if he seems a bit OC to you, just bear with me. I promise our favorite tall dark dungeon bat isn't about to bust out the warm fuzzies or teary eyed confessionals. But, as all Snape fans know, there has always been more to the man than meets the eye.**

 **TWITTER FACEBOOK**

 **1993 – Sunnydale, California**

It was late by the time Xander got home, after having escorted Willow back and spent an appropriate amount of time raiding her refrigerator. It was well past early evening and into the settling dusk. He couldn't help the quiet groan that escaped him when he saw Tony's truck already parked in the driveway. He'd been hoping his dad would've taken the night off to be at the bar with the guys from work, but apparently that wasn't happening.

He was tempted to bypass the front door all together and make a straight line for the basement entrance on the other side of the house. He really wasn't all that interested in running into Tony right about now, and he definitely wasn't up for any kind of parental conflict. But his slayer adjacent training compelled him to take the most direct path to the safety and sanctuary of the house.

Quickly making his way down the front path, he unlocked the front door, let himself in, and carefully shut the deadbolt behind him. No fuss, no fanfair, no 'I Love Lucy' style entrance. Anyone who knew him from school would think he had been abducted by aliens and replaced by body snatchers or androids or something. Only Willow would understand, because only Willow knew.

The flickering glow and familiar sounds of a studio applause tipped him off to Tony's location. Sure enough, a quick glance into the back room showed a firmly planted lump occupying its favorite Lazy Boy, beer in hand, crappy daytime TV reruns airing on the shitty little box not ten feet away. Stepping more stealthily than he had on any Slayer mission, Xander moved completely without noise from the darkened hallway outside the living room to the kitchen back at the front of the house. Sure enough, his mom was standing at the sink, her back to him as she fussed with some pot or plate in her hands, wielding a soapy scrub sponge in such a way that made Xander feel bad for the sponge. They had a dishwasher. It sat three feet to her right, the bottom wiring pulled out in some botched attempt at a repair from almost four years ago. And so now Jessica Harris stood at the sink, taking out her frustrations on a poor unsuspecting piece of dishware.

"Hey mom," Xander called softly. He knew she was aware of his presence, but felt the need to at least try and interrupt her aggressive scrubbing, is only to spare the poor piece of cheap ceramic in her hands.

"Hi honey, how was school?"

'Hi honey, how was school.' It was the same thing she always said to him when he came home, despite Xanders continuously unenthusiastic responses. After almost ten years of asking him the same question, he wondered if his mom ever really expected him to come home one day and launch into some kind of excited new found passionate exposition on just how 'awesome' school was. Well, if she did expect such a response, she certainly wasn't going to be receiving it today.

"Meh," Xander answered vaguely with a shrug, both of them keeping their voices down so as not to disturb Tony.

"And Willow?" His mom asked. Now that he had more of an answer for. Normally this was his que to go into a play by play recap of all of Willow's and his conversations and adventures and goofiness. He was about to launch into a tirade of all of Willow's awesomeness on that particular day, including all the weirdness that had gone down in the library, when he caught a glimpse of the side of his mom's face.

She was wearing fresh make up.

"Mom…"

Jessica Harris froze, her shoulders tense and her face averted. But it was too late. Xander had already seen the fresh marks along the side of her face. They wouldn't fully bloom until tomorrow. She had hoped to avoid him until they'd fully receded, but she should have known better. Xander may not get the best grades, but he wasn't stupid, and he was so incredibly observant, especially in recent years. She saw how Xanders eyes flicked angrily back towards the living room where he knew the person responsible was sitting comfortably watching TV.

"Xander," Jessica began, her voice soft and her eyes pleading. "Not now… please?"

Xander's teeth crunched as he clenched his jaw so tightly he thought he might actually chip a tooth. But eventually he felt his shoulders fall and his fists unclench as he leaned back against the kitchen counter, his knuckles still white, but letting the matter drop. Jessica smiled a sad but appreciative smile, simultaneously proud of how his first instincts were always to protect others and oh so grateful that he hadn't. She could take the bruises, so long as he didn't have to. Jessica felt relief settle into her shoulders, that is, at least for a moment.

"Hey mom?" Xander asked vaguely, his eyes still glued to the chipped linoleum floor of the kitchen, curiosity coloring his tone and distracting him from their previously averted line of discussion. Jessica hummed along to show she was listening as she continued rinsing out the last of the dishes. But at Xanders next words her hands would freeze, and two coffee mugs and a bowl would go unwashed that night. "Who was that guy you were talking to outside the Quick n' Save?"

"W-who?" If Xander noticed her stilled hands, the faint tension in her voice, or the even greater tension in her shoulders he either attributed it to their earlier conversation or just chose not to comment.

"Tall? Shoulder length dark hair? Creepy kinda pale? Nose like a hooked bat? Wearing all back despite it being like ten million degrees outside?"

Jessica shook off some of the more unflattering comments. She would have sent Xander a stern look under normal circumstances, but just right this second she didn't quite trust herself to look him in the eye. Fortunately, from what she could tell glancing over her shoulder, Xander still had not moved from where he was leaning against the counter contemplating the linoleum.

"Oh, Severus. Yes, of course." Jessica finally asked, trying to keep her voice from faltering. "What about him?"

"What's his deal?" Xander asked exasperatedly, not even really sure where to start.

"What do you mean?" His mother asked him nonchalantly.

"He was sniffing around the school today talking to Principal Tilly about some book in the library or something," Xander complained, obviously put off by something. "I mean, what does he even do?"

Jess thought for a moment, choosing her words carefully. She could already tell that there had been some friction between the two of them and didn't want to say anything that might worsen things, but she wouldn't lie to Xander. Even if she wouldn't tell him the whole truth, she wasn't about to lie to him. "Last I heard he was a teacher. Some sort of private school in England somewhere. Why do you ask?"

"Well it's just, why is he even here? What's he up to? How do you even know this guy?" Xander asked, obviously exasperated.

"Severus is a very old friend of mine from when I was a teenager," Jessica answered as truthfully as she could.

"So he's from Sunnydale?" Xander speculated curiously. It was obvious that the boy suspected him of something, but what it was exactly he thought Sev might be up to she truly had no clue.

"No, actually I'm fairly certain he's never been in Sunnydale before," Jess answered honestly. She may not have kept track of Sev's exact whereabouts over the intervening years, but she fairly certain that he'd have mention if he'd been in Sunnydale before. "We met when I used to visit my cousin Lilly in England."

"I didn't know you had a cousin in England," Xander spoke up, suddenly curious. "Why didn't you ever mention that?"

"She died, honey," Jess said gently, not sure how to bring up something that had been so painful but from so long ago. "You were only about ten when it happened."

"I'm sorry," Xander said simply, but genuinely. Jess smiled softly, knowing that he meant it. She shrugged, not knowing what else to say. "Do you mind if I ask how it happened?"

"Gas leak. Or at least that's what the papers said. I missed the funeral, but really Lilly and I hadn't spoken in years, not since we were in our early twenties."

"So, that's how you met Mr. Prince?"

" _Prince?_ " Xander glanced up at him mom, flinching when he saw the spotting makeup covering fresh bruises around the left side of her face. But his mom didn't even seem to notice as she looked at him in a mix of curiosity and surprise. "That's how he introduced himself? As Mr. Prince?"

" _Professor_ Prince, actually," Xander said with an eye roll. She snorted. His mother actually snorted in amusement and shook her head with a smirk and a quirked eyebrow as she laid out the dishes she had already cleaned to dry. But now it was Xanders turn to be curious. "Why?"

"Oh, that part sounds like Sev alright. He always was real big on titles. Got pushed around a lot when we were younger. I guess he always thought titles might come with some sort of respect attached to them," his mom explained absently. It was weird, how open she was being with them. I mean sure, Xan loved his mom, but they'd never really been able to just … _talk_ like this before. "But he went by Snape back then. Severus Snape. I suppose it's really not all that surprising that he'd change it, but still…"

"Why would he change his name?" Xander asked, curiosity now piqued as he thought about all the nefarious purposes someone could change their name for. But the small, sad smile his mother gave him completely derailed that train of thought before he could get very far with it.

"You two have a lot more in common than you might like," Jess told her son softly, thinking painfully on the irony of the situation as she tried to find how best to explain things to Xander without reveling Severus's true connection to him. "Let's just say that 'Snape' was his father's family name and leave it at that. Prince was his mother's maiden name I believe."

Xander thought on that for a moment, not quite willing for his thoughts to delve into the possible similarities between himself and the creepy dark haired man from the street corner. But his long since honed sense of self-preservation wouldn't let him drop it until he was at least reasonably certain that the man didn't pose any danger to either himself or anyone he cared about – his mother included.

"So you know him pretty well then?" Xander asked cautiously. His mother shot him a sly look that Xander was quite certain he had never seen on her before. It was more than a little unnerving.

"Xander, I knew Sev just about as well as any seventeen year old girl has ever known a seventeen year old boy- in _every_ way."

The look of horror that slowly spread across Xanders face would have made the old Jess laugh hysterically. This Jessica, however, the one who had been beaten down by years of marriage and tedium and scraping by a meager existence, merely huffed in nervous amusement before casting a worried glance back towards the living room. Xander followed her gaze, and his look of horror immediately hardened into one of anger. "Is that why…"

"Shh." Jess hushed sharply, giving him a pleading look. "He doesn't know. And I'd just as soon keep it that way."

Xander nodded immediately. If keeping this Prince guy out of the lime light would help protect his mother, then that was exactly what he would do. His suspicions be damned.

"I've got homework," Xander said half-heartedly, hefting up the mostly empty backpack by his side as if in evidence. "I'm gonna head up, get cracking. I'll see you in the morning?"

Jess nodded and was surprised when, not a moment later, Xander's arms enveloped her in a gentle hug, as if he were afraid to break her. Jess was ashamed to admit that she had actually flinched at the unexpected contact, but made up for it by returning Xanders gentle embrace with a fierce, bone crushing grip of her own.

"I love you mom."

Jessica felt her heart well up like she hadn't felt in years. Her eyes went misty and her breath caught in her throat. Surreptitiously wiping the moisture from her eyes as Xander pulled away, she gave him a little shove on up towards his bedroom.

"Go on now. And don't tie up the phone lines all night talking to Willow!"

"No promises!" Xander grinned back cheekily.

Jess just gave him a wry smirk as he fairly skipped on up the stairs. If that boy ever flashed that grin of his at any girl other than Willow he'd have them eating out of his hands. Setting the dried dishes back in the cupboard, ignoring the two cups and a bowl that still remained unwashed in the sink, she thought back to a similar seventeen year old boy and wondered idly how Sev would have looked if he'd ever smiled like that. Hell, if he'd even smiled at all.

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	10. Chapter Nine

**CHAPTER NINE**

 **TWITTER FACEBOOK**

 **1976 – Spinners End (…two streets over)**

Morning dawned over the Evans home quaint and quiet. Mr. Evans was seated at the breakfast table, munching away happily on his breakfast of cornflakes and bananas. Petunia Evans, nineteen and perpetually moody, was sulking into her cereal winging about how some fellow she'd met at university hadn't called her back yet this summer like he'd promised. Mrs. Evans was humming happily as she swung around the kitchen, the hem of her summer dress and apron floating on the breeze as she set about making coffee and packing lunches for herself and her family, completely oblivious to the total non-argument taking place upstairs.

"So, how'd you get home last night?" Jess asked with equal parts concern and bite. She loved her little cousin, she really did, and she did worry about her, but the events at the party still left a bitter taste in her mouth. Still, she'd been relieved to see her cousin safely tucked up in bed when she'd snuck in during the early light of pre-dawn that morning.

"James app-, er, popped us out right before the police showed up. Got us out just in time too, we were very nearly caught." As Lilly said this last part she gave her cousin a very pointed look. Jess ducked her head behind a sheet of tangled blond hair in order to avoid making direct eye contact with her younger cousin. She felt bad about that, but at the time she'd been a bit more caught up in her, cough cough, side activities.

"You go to illegal parties, you risk getting picked up by the cops. I thought you were supposed to be the smart one," Jess sighed dismissively, but without any real heat. Lilly huffed and turned an interesting shade of red, but refrained from picking up the charge. Instead she went in a different direction.

"Speaking of which, how did you get out? And what time did you get in?" Lilly asked pointedly, thinking back to when she'd just barely woken as her cousin climbed through her bedroom window just as dawn broke over the neighborhoods.

"Oh that's easy, I left before the cops ever showed."

"Where did you go?" Lilly pestered, irritated at her cousin and not quite willing to let the matter drop. Normally Jess would find her little cousins combination of concern and annoyance adorably endearing, but right this moment, she was still too irritated over the events of last night to care much.

"I was taking care of Sev. Someone had to make sure he didn't have a freaking concussion and got home safe," Jess snapped, glaring at the suddenly much paler red headed girl sitting on the bed across from her.

"What do you mean?" Lilly asked, her voice wavering. Jess could have taken it easy on her, broken the news gently, but she was too annoyed to care.

"Didn't your little boyfriend tell you?" Jess scoffed, eyes narrowed. Lilly just shook her head, looking unnerved. "He and his buddy zapped the crap out of Severus. Must have had some kind of freaking Taser shoved up the sleeves of that designer jacket of his, cause Sev hit the ground like a sack of bricks. Almost cracked his skull open on the freaking pavement. I was two seconds away from calling the freaking cops when he finally woke up."

Lilly looked horrified, tears misting her eyes though she fought them back. Jess waited for the comeback, waited for her little cousin to defend herself or her friends, but nothing came out. Eventually another voice could be heard echoing through the hallways from down below.

"LILLY GET DOWN HERE! THE FREAK IS WAITING!"

Lilly spun on her heal, exiting the room and darting down the hallway to the staircase and towards the kitchen. A smirk spread across Jess's face as she saw her words had hit their mark. Jess let the other girl flee, giving her a few minutes head start as she took the time to run a brush through her tangled and tousled hair, clean up her face, and reapply a little makeup.

Downstairs, just a few moments earlier, the tense discussion that was currently taking place upstairs was not in evidence. Mr. Evans was just getting to the end of the sports section and the bottom of his cup of coffee when he happened to glance up and see a dark figure striding towards the kitchen door through the garden.

"Ah, Severus my boy, how are you?" Mr. Evans boomed out warmly, pleasantly surprised to see the young man standing on the other side of the screen door. Severus faltered, his fist already having been raised to knock on the wooden door frame when Mr. Evans called out to him.

"Good morning Mr. Evans," The young man shuffled awkwardly as he spoke, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Robert Evans frowned, looking at the young man in concern. They hadn't seen much of the boy this summer, not since he and Lilly had a bit of a falling out last fall actually. As far as he knew, Sev never even came home for the holidays. Not that he could blame him. There wasn't much to come home _to_. But still, the boy was seventeen now, the man of the household and more or less all on his own. There had been some rumors of distant relatives after the tragedy last summer, but none that Robert or his wife had ever seen. He had actually expected the boy to appear much sooner, asking advice on finances and legal matters. Severus had always been able to come to him in the past, and now he had so much more to deal with. But they hadn't seen much more than a glance of him on an opposite street corner since school let out. Lilly's only explanation was that they'd had a 'falling out'.

Roselyn, or Rosie to just about everyone who didn't want to get on her bad side, Evans wasted absolutely no time in making the boy right at home again as she wrenched the garden door open and wrapped the all too slender young man in a bone crushing hug.

"Oh gracious Sev! It is so good to see you!" Severus looked uncertain and awkward, the unexpected embrace obviously surprising him, though it was clear to see he wanted to return it. Eventually though, Rose released him only to hold the boy at arm's length so that she could progress with her examination of the boy. "My oh my, I sometimes wonder if they even feed you at that school! You are always such skin and bones! Now come in, there's still plenty of corn flakes left. I'm only sorry I don't have a proper breakfast going. Robert and Petunia are off to work, you see, and I've a market to get to in Redding. What on earth are you still doing in the doorway dear?"

True to her word, the young man in question was still hunched uncomfortably in the garden doorway, looking even more uncomfortable than he had when he'd first knocked. It reminded Robert and Rosie of the timid young boy her daughter had first brought home from the park all those years ago.

"Lilly doesn't want to see 'im." Petunia chimed in snootily from her corner at the kitchen table, looking superiorly at the gaunt figure in the doorway. Sev bristled, and stood up a bit straighter, refusing to be belittled by someone like Petunia, but did not move from his position in the doorway.

"Oh don't be silly," Rosie said, waving aside Petunia's comments as simple jealousy. Petunia had always been jealous of her younger sister, especially of the close friendship she had with Severus. They'd tried to treat both of their daughters equally, but it was so difficult to do so when one of them was sent away most of the year and only got to see them at holidays. The fact that she was a witch was almost irrelevant. "Sev, come in dear. At least let me make you a cup of tea."

"I don't think that's such a good idea."

Rosie looked helplessly from her husband to the sullen young man in the doorway and back to her husband, completely at a loss. Robert coughed and straightened in his seat, setting his newspaper aside as he turned his head towards Petunia.

"Could you please go and fetch your sister for us?"

Petunia sighed/growled moodily and picked up her now empty cereal bowl as she stood before turning and shouting up the staircase. "LILLY GET DOWN HERE! THE FREAK IS WAITING!"

Petunia shot Severus a victorious smirk, ignoring her mother's scolding and her father's disapproving look, Petunia set her bowl in the sink before sauntering from the room just as Lilly appeared, looking flustered and upset, at the bottom of the staircase.

"Freaks here," Petunia repeated, quite unnecessarily as both Severus and Lilly had already locked eyes, before disappearing down the hall.

The Kitchen was silent and unnervingly tense for a several long awkward moments, neither Lilly nor Severus willing to make the first move, with both Mr. and Mrs. Evans looking on uncertainly from the side lines. Eventually Rosie could take no more.

"Oh both of you!" She huffed, making both children flush awkwardly as her disapproving glare. "Really, enough of this nonsense! I don't know what has gotten into the two of you but for as long as your father and I are here Severus will always be welcome in this house! So the two of you had better just find a way to get along or, better yet, sort out whatever it was that happened between you two!"

"Mom!" Lilly cried, outraged that her own mother would take _his_ side over hers. Severus, meanwhile, stood stock still as a war of unreadable emotions played out just below the surface of his face. Eventually Lilly gave up looking exasperatedly at her mother and turned to face Severus head on, her arms crossed over her chest. "What do you want Sev? I thought I made myself clear on the train."

Severus winced, actually winced at that, and rubbed his arm absently, as if soothing some phantom injury. But he never quite got the chance to answer.

"He's here for me." Three heads turned and spun to look up in surprise at the smirking blond as she sauntered into the kitchen. Sev just nodded, his expression neutral, as Jess crossed the kitchen and wrapped an arm around his waist. Jess felt Sev tense underneath her palm at the contact, specifically with who was watching, but he did a very good job of hiding his discomfort and keeping his expression neutral. Jess just looked back at the assembled crowd, two very surprised adults and a frankly shocked and outraged Lilly. "Well, since Uncle Robbie and Petunia had to work, and Aunt Rosie was going to the market today, Sev offered to show me around town a little. Check out downtown a little, maybe hit up a few record shops. You want to come Lilly?"

Jess said that last bit, completely calm, looking directly at her younger cousin to gauge her reaction. Lilly looked appalled at first, but Jess could tell that she also really did want to join them. Sadly, whatever had happened between the two of them had was enough for Lilly to reluctantly shake her head, her mouth clench shut, lips pursed, as if she didn't trust herself enough to refuse their offer out loud.

"Alrighty then, I'll see you freaks later!" Jess said with forced cheerfulness, trying to ignore how frigidly tense Severus was at her side. Her Aunt Rose was twisting and weathering a dish rag in her hands to the point where Jess could swear she was going to wear a hole in it. Uncle Bob was sitting, still and calm, at his spot at the kitchen table, watching the situation unfold. Eventually the tension in the room became all but unbearable. Severus turned and pushed open the screen door, holding it open for Jess. The blond ducked out the door and was hallway down the short stack of steps to the garden, Severus still in the doorway but following shortly behind her, when they heard Lilly call out behind them.

"Is that it?" Jess paused as Severus froze, both of them turning to look back through the open doorway into the kitchen. Jess had to peer around Sev's shoulder to see Lilly, looking shocked and broken, still standing at the far end of the kitchen, looking at them expectantly. "You don't have anything to say to me?"

To Severus's credit he didn't so much as flinch. He didn't immediately dissolve under Lilly's tragic stare. He didn't go frigid in anger or hurt. Didn't snap and tear into a rage. He just stood there, quiet and tired and sad, looking at the person who used to be his greatest friend and ally in the entire world. He had tried to mend things between them. He had apologized, he had tried to explain, and he had begged her for her forgiveness. But he was done. He was not bending over backwards to earn forgiveness from someone who had no interest in giving it. He was done subjugating himself and his pride for her approval. If ten years of friendship were not worth enough for her to fight for, then Severus would not carry on this battle alone.

"I said everything I had to say last night," Severus sounded tired, but resigned. "And you didn't want to hear it."

Jess could see Lilly swallow from where she was standing on the back steps behind Severus just before the young woman disappeared down the hall. Mrs. Evans was left looking worriedly at the young man in the doorway, Mr. Evan looking on sadly from where he was seated at the breakfast table.

"Severus…" Mrs. Evans said almost pleadingly. Severus just nodded to both her and Mr. Evans.

"Rosie, Robert," Severus said calmly, regarding the two people in the room who had always treated him with warmth and respect as equals. "Thank you for having me."

That was it. That was all Severus said as he found his way down the garden steps, letting the screen door shut closed behind him. He didn't look at Jess as he made his way down the garden path, the girl following only a few steps behind him. It wasn't until Jess caught up with him, casually looping her arm into his, that she caught a glimpse of the moisture gathering his eyes as he stood tall, refusing to break.

"Oh Sev," Jess sighed, simultaneously proud of the way he had handled that and unbelievably heartbroken for the weird scrawny little kid that always seemed to get the short end of the stick. "Come on Captain Broody. Show me all the seedy parts of this craptastic little town that little Ms. Perfect won't admit exist. I'm feeling up for a little mischief."

And there. A small quirk of the lips. Barely even a smirk, but still the closest thing to a smile she'd seen on Sev's face since she'd first spotted him striding across the solo cup encrusted lawn last evening.

There might just be hope for this boy yet.

 **1993 – Sunnydale California, the Ramada Inn**

The sun was just barely peaking over the edge of the world. Severus could see it, off in the distance. There wasn't much to this place beyond the initial suburbs and tiny town center. The highway that bordered the small town looked out across the desert, speckled with only a few dusty bars and mechanics shops to break up the monotony. It was early. Still far too early to even consider making a phone call. So instead he sat in his chair and the perpetually teetering little table, and watched the sunrise. He sipped mildly at a cup of Earl Gray tea, smuggled over in his own belongings, the shameful imitation coffee remaining untouched in the corner of his hotel room. Severus was an experienced traveler by this point in his life, and knew better than to count on being able to find old comforts abroad. So now, when he had to travel in search of some ancient tome or rare potion ingredient, he made sure to always take a small supply of proper, loose leaf, Earl Gray tea with him.

He sat, and he waited, watching as the unstoppable Californian sun rose into the sky and baked down onto the dry dessert floor below. He could only imagine it was going to be another hot, unrelenting day, and briefly considered donning short sleeves. But the ugly, black mark that stained his left forearm (and a part of his soul as well) quickly make him dismiss that idea. He had thought before about covering it up. There was no way to remove the tattoo, of that much he was certain. But perhaps… perhaps there was way to obscure it somehow. He would not be terribly adverse to another tattoo, anything that would cover the ugly black scar. Perhaps if he infused the ink somehow. Yes – an essence of myrtle might be of some effect. He would need to have it done at a magical tattoo parlor, there was no way around that. But no one in England would so much as touch such an obviously dark stain, and he held out little hope for the continent as well. Perhaps here, while he was in the colonies. He was already sitting in a hot bed of dark mystical energy – certainly he should have little trouble finding a mystically inclined tattoo artist in such a place. Especially for the right price…

Severus glanced at the clock. It read 8:47. Even assuming that Mr. Harris began work at 9 (although an earlier shift was equally likely for a manufacturing position) he should already be well out of the house.

Ignoring the faint trembling of his fingertips, he deftly picked up the provided in-suite phone and dialed the number that had been carefully and clearly written onto a small slip of paper. It took three rings, during which time Severus almost hoped the person on the other end of line wouldn't pick up. Eventually though, he heard the receiver click, and a familiar voice came over the line.

"Hello?"

"Jessica," Severus said, his voice almost catching as a rush of old memories flooding back to him. "I, er, I was wondering…" Severus could almost kick himself for sounding like an uncertain school boy. He was one of the worlds most accomplished potions masters, professor at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and had served as a spy against one of the darkest wizards in history. But still, he was powerless against the memory of a smirking teenage girl in ripped jeans and a loosely fitted faded band T-shirt that always seemed to fall off one shoulder. "I was wondering if perhaps you might like to have coffee with me… yes… of course… yes… I believe so… Very well, The Bean at eleven then… Yes… Yes, I look forward to it as well… very well. I will see you there."

The telephone disconnected with a little click, and a small smirk graced Severus's features as he was reminded, yet again, of the whirlwind that was Jessica Lavelle.

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	11. Chapter Ten

**CHAPTER TEN**

 **Sunnydale 1993 – Sunnydale High School Library**

Xander had arrived bright and early in the school library that morning. He had a spring in his step and was half humming half whistling some eerily jaunty tune that Buffy was sure she was going to get stuck in her head before long if she didn't hurry up and put a stop to it – fast.

"What's got you all chipper chipmunk this morning?" the blond asked, side eyeing her favorite Xander shaped friend. It was rare to see anyone but Willow in the library before school actually started, but Buffy still had to follow up on some research she and Giles were supposed to be working on. She wished she could tell Willow and Xander about it, she knew they would be an awesome help with the book like stuff… well, Willow would. But Xander would bring snacks and keep her entertained, and in her mind that was just as important as averting the next apocalypse. So for both her and Xander to be in the Library in the early 'ick' hours of the morning, with no Willow in sight, was really something of a mystery.

Xander just flashed her his usual Xander grin, the one that she just KNEW he didn't realize was so heart throb daytime drama charming, and shrugged. "Just a good day- sun is shining, happy to be here, all that stuff."

"You do realize this is the library right? A HIGH SCHOOL Library. The complete and utter bane of our teenage existence?"

Xander just shrugged again, swung his backpack up onto the table and began working something out from amongst its haphazard contents. "Not when you've got – Cheesey Poofs!"

Buffy let out an admittedly girly squeal and gave overly excited 'gimme' gestures from the other side of the table. Xander laughed as he mock reluctantly handed over the bag, but not before taking a precious handful of the chemical cheesy goodness for himself. He knew it might be the only handful from that bag he ever got once the Slayer tore into it. Glancing around the library as he popped a bite of cheesy crunchy goodness into his mouth, he searched for a familiar bespectacled tweed figure as the Slayer tore into his bag of snacks behind him.

"Hey, you seen Giles around yet?"

"Not yet," Buffy replied nonchalantly as she continued to chow down on cheesy poofs. "He said he'd be in before classes started though. Why?"

"Just wanted to ask him about something wiggy that happened last night. Kept me up half the night, but I think I've got a plan!"

"Wiggy?" Buffy asked, suddenly all business as she looked in concern at her very average and very breakable friend. "Like, just normal Sunnyhell _weird_ wiggy? Or bump in the night kind of wiggy?"

"Aren't' those two basically the same thing?" Xander asked with one faintly cocked eyebrow. Buffy rolled her eyes and threw a cheesy poof at him, which Xander stumbled to grab but did eventually catch, at the cost of the rest of the cheesy poofs he'd been holding. Glaring half heartedly at Buffy's victorious smirk, he bent down and picked up the tumbled cheesy poofs before tossing them in the garbage can. Now normally Xander had no aversion to eating snacks off the floor, but the amount of demon blood and other decidedly disgusting mystical gunk that graced these floors had recently made him abandon that habit. Brushing the cheese dust off his hands Xander just shook his head in exasperation but then shrugged, obviously still distracted. "I don't know, just something Principal Flutie and Tall Dark and broody were talking about yesterday."

"Tall Dark and Broody?" Buffy asked, her mind immediately going to a certain pale figure from the shadows. But Xander was too distracted to see her line of thinking.

"Yeah, some professor from England. Gave the name 'Prince'. Gave off a weird vibe."

"What, you're telling me you can sense the dark and spookies now?" Buffy teased, expecting Xander to roll his eyes and give in to their playful banter. She was half right, he did roll his eyes. But then he flopped back to lay face up on the table he'd been sitting on, throwing his hands up and rubbing tiredly at the frustration building in his temples and eyes.

"Ugh, not you too!" Xander groaned from where he lay prone on the table.

"What do you mean, 'not me too?'" Buffy asked quickly, not too pleased to be lumped in with some other unknown person.

"Willow said the exact same thing yesterday when the dude was in here," Xander exclaimed quietly in frustration. "I don't know how else to explain it though! The dude just gave me the willies!"

Buffy looked at her friend, all but certain that it was just his imagination playing tricks on him, but not wanting to embarrass him further by keeping up the teasing. So instead she just smiled and patted his leg sympathetically.

"Well, let me know if you see him again and I'll check him out, see if the slayer senses tingle or anything."

"Really?" Xander asked, sounding honestly surprised at her answer. "You'd do that for me?"

"Sure," Buffy answered with a shrug, wondering in all honesty how likely Xander thought it would be to bump into some apparently random creepy guy that had wandered into their library. Xander looked like he was about to say something when all trains of thought and communication were cut abruptly to a halt by an irate Englishman in a Tweed vest.

"The absolute NERVE of that man never once ceases to astound me! To presume to give away such an ancient, albeit admittedly obscure and brain addled text! I come here, abandoning all hopes of proper civilization, and seek to secure ENORMOUS contributions of ancient and mystical literary value, and WHAT DOES HE DO?!"

"Flutie told you about that book thing, huh?" Xander asked nonchalantly from where he was now sitting upright on one of the libraries study tables.

Giles wheeled around, looking honestly surprised to see either Xander or his Slayer sitting at one of the library tables. Apparently he hadn't realized anyone was there when he began his indignant tirade. But eventually Giles focused in on Xanders' words.

"You knew about this, this, this…"

"The book guy?" Xander finished for him as Giles fished around for the most perfectly appropriate insult he could find. The older man just nodded, the pink flush creeping up around his neck a reliable indicator that the man was indeed _furious._ "Yeah, I was just telling Buffy about him. He came in with Flutie the other day while you and Buffster were off on your super top secret mission thing." Xander tried not to sound annoyed at being left out, but apparently hadn't hid it well enough as Buffer grimaced and began playing with her cheesy poofs. Giles was either too upset to notice or too upset to care. But either way the older man stood there breathing heavily and sternly as he fought to regain composure, obviously waiting for Xander to continue.

"Uh, he was talking to Flutie about 'appropriating' one of your books or something. I only managed to catch a few words as we were leaving while, you know, adjusting my shoe laces, shuffling my books, straightening my shirt – which I _definitely_ was not doing while eaves dropping," Buffy caught Xanders less than subtle hint, but Giles just looked as if he wanted the young man to get on with it. "Uh, he wanted to test its authenticity or something, make sure it was legit? But I couldn't catch the title, it was long and weird, but definitely one of the not so public books we keep around here."

"Adolphus Raskus 'Effects of the Lunar Cycle on the Lycanatoxic Properties of Monkshood," Giles rattled off with annoying ease. "Unfortunately our dear principal has already taken possession of the book and placed it in secure holdings until he can verify the sale or I would simply 'misplace' it. What on earth was that man was thinking!"

"Yeah, its almost like he thinks he runs the school or something," Buffy mocked lightly with a gentle eyeroll. Giles just huffed and stormed towards his office. They thought he might disappear into its depths, but instead they heard the distinct sounds of him making himself a cup of tea before the librarian reappeared, anxiously waiting for the kettle to boil. Xander was content to flop back down on the table and let the weirdness pass as just another part of life in SunnyHell, but Buffy seemed more concerned about the amount of aggravation this was causing their favorite Brit. "Honestly Giles, is the book really that important or something?"

"Well, no, not unless we ever have any extended confrontation with werewolves," Giles huffed neatly before continuing to rage. "It is more the violation of it than anything else! The thought that this man could come in here at any time and remove texts which we may one day need to avert the apocalypse is… unsettling."

A chill went through Buffy's spine at those words. Yeah, she could definitely agree with that. As much as she hated the research part of Slayer-ing, it had saved her neck more than a few times.

"Well, its not like theres much we can do about it anyways," Buffy tried to soothe, the words sounding hollow to her own ears.

"Unless we just put the good books somewhere else of course," Xander commented mildly, tossing a cheesy poof into his mouth. He carefully sucked the delicious artificial cheesy goodness from his fingers before looking up to find both Slayer and Watcher staring at him openly. "What?"

 **Sunnydale 1993 – The Bean Coffee Shop**

Jessica Lavelle Harris fiddled absent mindedly with the cheap fake gold band on her left ring finger. She had found the ring an embarrassing symbol of sentimentality when Tony had first presented it to her, but had since grown to see it for what it really was – a symbol of her bondage to a man and life she had grown to resent.

It wasn't a necessarily a conscious decision, Jessica had long been ruled more by impulse than anything else. But in that moment Tony Harris's wife of sixteen years ripped the tiny cheap symbol of her servitude off of her finger and dropped it into the tiny chest pocket of her old denim vest and buttoned it up. She'd thrown on the old vest, with its frayed sleeves and old band patches, on top of her standard kitchen summer dress, more out of nostalgia than anything else. That vest had collected rips, stains, patches and tears at well over a hundred concerts in four countries and twenty four states during her wild and crazy years, and she had loved every single minute of it.

Now, hearing the jingling chime of the coffee shop door, she saw a familiar brooding figure stepping into the cool embrace of the air conditioning. Judging by the appreciative glance in her direction, Sev had also recognized the vest. Jess smirked, not needing his approval, but certainly enjoying the reaction she had garnered none the less.

"Jess," Sev acknowledged with a knowledgeable smirk as he took his seat at the table across from her.

"Sev," Jess replied, her own smirk quickly growing more devious by the minute as Severus raised a curious eyebrow in response. "Looks like it's finally my turn to show _you_ around," Jess said by way of explanation. "You up for a little mischief?"

Sev just smirked. "And what precisely did you have in mind?"


	12. Chapter Eleven

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

Minerva McGonagall was not known for her sense of humor. It was there, of course, hidden behind layers of stern matronly disapproval and brash Scottish ire, but it was there. At this particular moment, however, she failed to find absolutely anything funny about the situation at hand.

"Really Albus! I do wish you'd take these concerns more seriously!" Minerva huffed, trying to keep both her temper and her brogue in check at the same time. She was really only succeeding on one front as a bit more of Scotland seeped out seemingly with every breath. "I know he's never been the most… personable of individuals, and I'm not expecting he suddenly become all warm and fuzzy, Merlin knows that will never happen, but he can't keep carrying on as he is! Scarring first years witless, berating students for the simplest of mistakes. Do you 'ave any idea 'ow many of my fifth years the man has reduced to tears this term alone?! It simply can't be allowed to continue like this!"

To say that the head of Gryffindor House was not in a good mood would have been an ingenuous understatement. But still, the recipient of her ire simply sit back and smile pleasantly at her as though entertaining an endearingly overly enthusiastic child, which only served to irk Minerva to no end.

"I'm getting letters in from the parents now! Children have been home for the holidays for less than two days and I'm getting letter about how he's been treating their children! We'll be hearing from the board of directors soon if he keeps carrying on!"

"Albus sat back, his irritatingly benign smile doing absolutely nothing to calm Minerva's quelling rage. There were few things she cared about more in this world than her dear little lion cubs.

Albus sat back, smiling his irritatingly benign smile, as Minerva huffed, slowly collecting herself as her breaths fell back into her stern but steady rhythm. With her breathing back into a steady rhythm, Dumbledore obviously felt it safe to speak.

"Now Minerva…" Albus began placating. It was quickly made evident to him that it was NOT safe to speak.

"Don't you 'Now Minerva' me Albus! I understand how valuable Severus has been, both as a Potions Master and during the war, but really! At what point does the damage he is doing to the students outweigh the benefits we have by keeping him!"

"Minerva," there was a softly disappointed tone in Albus's voice that made Minerva stop in her tracks. When she looked back over her shoulder at him from where she'd been pacing out her frustrations, she saw the sad glimmer dulling his normal bright crystal blue gaze. "And what about Severus?"

"Oh, what of him?!" Minerva snapped impatiently. She knew it sounded a bit disingenuous, but at that particular moment, with the words of concerned parents ringing in her ears and Albus's disappointed stare bearing her down, she had little capacity left to worry over the admittedly fully grown man who was their Potions Master.

Albus merely continued to stare at her, sadness clouding over his pale blue eyes as he sat, gnarled hands steepled loosely in front of him. "You speak so passionately of the benefits to the school, and the cost for the students… but what about the benefits and costs for Severus?"

Minerva continued to scowl at the headmaster, stubbornly refusing his forlorn gaze. Eventually Dumbledore sighed and, peering at Minerva through half-moon spectacles, finally enticed her into taking a seat. Once she was seated, Albus spoke again.

"What do you think would happen, to Severus, my dear, if we turned him out of the castle?"

"Is that really our concern to worry about?" Minerva huffed irritatedly. True, it was always difficult losing a member of staff, particularly as they all not only worked together but lived together for the majority of the year as well. Severus was one of the few Professors who seemed to live at the castle almost year round. She knew he had another address, it was on file with the school. But the only times he ever seemed to leave was when he went on one of his little trips in pursuit of some rare ingredient or ancient text.

"I know you are aware of some of what Severus went through during the war, even before he came to our side."

Minerva was silent for a long moment at the sudden departure in topic. The war was not something readily or easily brought to mention, it had only been a half dozen years or so since that fateful October night after all. But she nodded along anyways. She recalled the sullen young man that she had known as a student, the gaunt figure she had seen across battlefields during the war, and the terrified shell of a young man who had come pleading to Dumbledore to save another, even at the cost of his own life. Though Severus had never spoken to her of any of this, she still couldn't shake the image of the violently shivering damaged husk that had been Severus Snape as he sat in Dumbledore's office being interviewed by the Headmaster. And though he had proven to be a worthwhile investment and an incredible asset as a spy, the young man had never really seemed to convince many other members of the order of his sincerity. Though, in all honesty, that had hardly seemed to be of any interest to him.

"Severus was always a lonely boy, but after the war…" Albus was speaking again, and Minerva struggled to keep up. The remembrance of the war had been jarring, to say the least, and now she had to blink quickly to refocus. Albus looked at her sadly. "He has no one Minnie. Not one person beyond the borders of this castle that I believe he could ever truly count as friend."

Minerva had to fight back a snort – she highly doubted that Severus ever counted any of the faculty other than Dumbledore in the category of 'friend', and he as a mentor more than anything. In fact, during the entire time she'd known him, as a student, enemy, traitor, spy, and later colleague, she could honestly say she'd never seen Severus socialize with anyone other than Lily Evans, with the possible exception of Lucius Malfoy. Though she very much doubted what sort of speaking terms those two might be on since the war. And yet Severus had always seemed to rather prefer it that way.

"Hogwarts has been that boys home and fortress since long before he became a teacher," Albus continued. "And in the few years where he was parted from its walls before he was lead deeply and darkly astray. I shudder to think at what may happen if he were to be parted from its walls again."

"You believe he may turn again?" Minerva asked, genuinely shocked. She had always thought Albus had more faith in the young man than that. But in that moment, Albus didn't look like the wise and kindly headmaster. He looked old and tired, like an aging uncle deeply worried over his favorite nephew. "I know you have your theories," Albus had always said he didn't believe the Dark Lord was truly gone, merely hiding, biding his time. But Minerva really didn't want to bare thinking over such things. "But do you really have so little faith in Severus that you believe he would turn on us if he strayed beyond the castle walls?!"

To be fair, Albus looked chastised, but otherwise unconvinced.

"Minerva, the boy has been through some serious hardship in his time. Both before and after the war. Hogwarts is the closest thing to a proper home he has ever known. I know you are concerned about his effect on the students, but I more worry about what affect his leaving us might have on him. I didn't intervene before, when perhaps I should have. It is possible that so much of this pain and misery could have been avoided if I had. How can I possibly turn the boy out into the cold?"

Albus looked genuinely remorseful and more tired than she could remember seeing him in ages as he sank back in his chair. But Minerva had heard enough.

"Because he isn't a _boy_." Albus looked up tiredly at Minerva, surprised at the sharpness in tone. But Minerva had had quite enough of his little pity party. "Severus isn't a _child_ Albus. He is a fully grown man who, for better or worse, you _employee._ His is no longer one of your students that you need to watch over! Yes, he has been through a great deal in the intervening years, as have we all. But it is your actual students who need your concern now! Severus is, for all his faults and prickles, one of the finest Potions Masters in England, Europe even! His services have been demanded by research consortiums and medi-witches across the globe! And he had the strength of character to, despite having no reason for us to believe him, turn traitor in the midst of being surrounded by the DARKEST sort of support network imaginable and spy for the light!"

Minerva had found herself standing again, glaring at Albus as she peered at him over her spectacles and leaned overbearingly up against his desk. She had not in a thousand years thought to find herself up here defending Severus's character to the headmaster, but here she was, none the less.

"Severus is a grown man with more talent and character than you dare to give him credit for! He could find a new position in a HEARTBEAT if you were to release him from his contract! But you insult the man by insinuating him incapable of existing beyond your walls and your reach! And in doing so you do no favor to your students, the children whose best interests you should ACTUALLY be watching out for!" Minerva was just about fit to burst. She'd had enough of Albus's chess master guilt driven meddling and set herself to storm out of his office, her brogue still echoing through his office. "I's about ruddy time 'ou get 'ur priorities in order!"

She almost missed it, his voice was so quite. But just as she reached the bottom of the stairs she heard Dumbledores voice drift after her.

"Minnie… he has no one else…"

Minerva McGonagall did something she normally would not have believed herself capable of doing and slammed the headmasters door shut after him, startling the stone gargoyle so much he scampered up his marble column and hid near the corner where the wall met the arched stone roof, waiting for the enraged matronly Scott to pass safely into the distance.

Five thousand miles away, Severus Snape was enjoying a lovely cup of coffee as he casually perused the contents of an old record shop, a fierce and sharp witted blond hanging onto his side and laughing melodically as some savage remark he'd just made at some band or another's credentials. Her laugh occasionally devolved into a sort of snort, which only made Snape's smirk grow as he watched her almost fall over laughing, the light in her all but sparkling in the sun.

Neither of them knew that, just across the street, another familiar figure was watching their interactions, and was not happy with what they saw…


End file.
